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

Chapter 550: The Visible Hand and the Vision of a Harmonious World
On November 17th, the 31st year of the Han calendar, Pinyang County.

Jia Yi, Zhang Shizhi and Chao Cuo led Xu Aimin to inspect the glass production base in Changdao County.

Jia Yi smiled and said, "There are now 25 glass factories of all sizes in Pingyang County's glass production base. The internal officials hold % of the shares, the craftsmen hold % of the shares, and the managers hold % of the shares. The transformation to government-run companies has basically been completed. The annual output value of glass in this base exceeds million coins. This year, it can bring more than million in tax revenue to Pingyang County. The tax revenue has doubled, and the income of local people has also doubled, especially the craftsmen in the glass manufacturing industry. Their income is almost catching up with ordinary craftsmen in Chang'an City."

Xu Aimin was a little surprised and asked, "Why are these merchants in Guanzhong suddenly willing to accept the government-run reform?"

The difficulty in transferring industries to Guanzhong was caused not only by the obstruction of Han officials in Chang'an City, but also by the obstruction of local merchants. After all, they suddenly had to hand over 70% of their shares in their well-run factories and work for the court, so naturally they were reluctant to give up their own businesses.

Jia Yi said, "Because the court can make money for them. Your Highness, you promoted the glass greenhouse, which is an order worth 50 or 60 million. Last year, the government-run glass factory received orders worth hundreds of millions when the neighborhoods were renovated. This year, you plan to renovate two neighborhoods, which is about 200 or 300 million more orders. These businessmen want to make money from the court, so they naturally have to listen to the court."

"Pingyang County has also begun to realize economies of scale. The cost of glass production here is the lowest. People in Guanzhong know that if they want to buy high-quality, low-priced glass, they have to come to Pinyang County. Naturally, the business of glass factories in other places has become worse. Five glass factories in Guanzhong have closed down this year alone."

Speaking of this, Jia Yi emphasized his tone. When he first wanted to integrate Guanzhong's industrial chain, these merchants were also opponents. Now they are experiencing the consequences.

Then Jia Yi sighed, "Your Highness's creation of the Construction Company is a stroke of genius. Just building houses has made the court a lot of money, but I didn't expect that such a house alone could extend to so many industrial chains. Building a community requires countless bricks, millions of stones of cement, and glass worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It can also drive street lights, kerosene, and even furniture industries. The most important thing is that the court can decide the rise and fall of these industries with a single word. If businessmen want to make money, they naturally have to obey the court's orders. In Neishi County, the industries that are willing to accept government-run operations are cement brick kilns and other real estate-related industries."

After the real estate industry was developed, Jia Yi suddenly felt that his pressure was reduced a lot.

If the glass industry, cement industry, and brick kiln industry are willing to listen to the court, they can get orders. If they are unwilling to listen, they can directly acquire some poorly managed factories. After they are transformed into state-owned factories, with large orders, these factories that are about to go bankrupt will not only quickly revive, but also begin to swallow up other small factories.

Hearing this, Xu Aiming's face was full of pride. After the house in Yangshuli started to be sold, he also felt the pleasure of using money to attack others.

Although Chang'an City's tax revenue is 70 billion, most of it has to be turned over to the court, because the local share of asset tax is larger, and there are several big asset tax payers in the inner court in Neishi County, and there is also 10 billion transferred and paid by the court. Xu Aimin, the Neishi Order, can only collect about 30 billion.

But the Neishi was after all the capital's seat, and had the heaviest government affairs to undertake. He had to receive officials and princes who came to the imperial court for the imperial examination, the Assembly of Sages, and the Assembly of Princes. Among all the Neishi, there were the most Han officials, and there were more places to spend money. The expenditure of 30 billion coins made Xu Aimin stretched to the limit.

But this year, the construction company earned him 400 million yuan, increasing fiscal revenue by more than 10%. Add to that the income from the expansion of government-run enterprises, the income from the glass greenhouse, and the income from the watch factory and tractor factory, and he has more money to spend flexibly.

A few years ago, the Fire Department complained about insufficient funds and staff. This year, Xu Aimin doubled their funding and staff. He also ordered 50 water dragon carriages specially used for fire fighting from the Chang'an Horse Farm. These carriages can spray water dragons 7 meters high and 15 meters far, and can immediately extinguish any fire.

With sufficient manpower and advanced equipment, the frequency of fires in Chang'an City this year was more than 20% lower than last year, and the mortality rate was reduced by half. For this, Xu Aimin commended the Fire Department's Han Li many times.

Also because of the high amount of money in his hands, he directly increased the bonus of the Han Li of the Internal Affairs Department, who originally had a tense relationship with him, by 50%, and provided various welfare benefits, including summer heatstroke prevention allowances and off-season vegetables and watermelons in winter. With these benefits, the execution of the Han Li increased by 50%. At the same time, he also announced that the Han Li of the Internal Affairs Department, who had families with housing shortages, could apply to the Internal Affairs Department's government office for a house.

After the news of house distribution spread, the Han officials in Chang'an were in an uproar. These were the houses in Chang'an City, and there was no one who did not want them. Hundreds of people applied that month. Xu Aimin's reputation among the officials changed from being strict to being clear about rewards and punishments, with the demeanor of an emperor. This was Xu Aimin's favorite sentence to hear, and he smiled more this month than in the whole of last year.

Xu Aimin said: "The internal historian's official reform has just begun, and we still need to continue our efforts. Jia Qing, you should first transform the dozen or so industrial clusters in Chang'an. After you do this, I will naturally give you more important tasks."

His father said that he would retire at the age of 60, and there are only a few years left. Xu Aimin knows that he will not be able to serve as the Minister of Internal Affairs for long. After he becomes the emperor, he will naturally want to spread his ideas throughout the Han Dynasty. If he wants to govern according to his own ideas, he naturally needs the help of his confidants like Jia Yi.

Jia Yi said excitedly: "Yes!"

In his heart, Jia Yi was also waiting for an opportunity. Now that the Han Dynasty was in a period of economic prosperity, naturally not many businessmen were willing to give up control of their factories.

But when the economic crisis comes, there will be bankrupt factories everywhere in the world. At that time, the imperial court will be able to screen these factories. If they are unwilling to be government-run, there are many factories in the world that are willing to be government-run.

Based on the intervals between the previous two crises, Dahan will experience an overcapacity crisis almost every 10 years. It has been 12 years since the last crisis, and Dahan’s overcapacity crisis will come soon.

He was also very dissatisfied with the efficiency of the current official reforms of the Internal Affairs Bureau. The most important steel industry, machinery industry, and carriage and horse industry in Guanzhong were not included in the official reforms. The situation in Chang'an was much worse than that in Chenjun.

Xu Aimin thought for a moment and said, "You should also pay attention to accumulating funds and controlling inventory. According to the news from the accountant, the steel industry in the Great Han Dynasty has overcapacity. If we don't reduce overcapacity, the overcapacity in the steel industry will explode. Based on past experience, if a crisis breaks out in any industry, it will spread to the whole world. In the past, it was the textile industry, and this time it may be the steel industry. The steel industry is the foundation of almost all industries in the Great Han Dynasty. If a crisis really breaks out, I'm afraid this crisis will be bigger than the previous two times."

Jia Yi was overjoyed when he heard this, but he suppressed his joy and said solemnly: "Your Highness, the official reform is to fight the economic crisis. In my opinion, this is the only way to solve the economic crisis."

Xu Aimin smiled and said, "Your Excellency is always so confident. Many scholars and heroes in our Han Dynasty dare not say that they can eliminate the economic crisis, but you are so confident. Father said that it is very easy to find a problem, but it is more than ten times or a hundred times more difficult to solve it. In the face of the crisis, our Han Dynasty must accumulate more experience and find more solutions."

But Jia Yi said: "The Han Dynasty is changing with each passing day. There are too many new industries added in the past few decades. At the same time, the emperor has promoted standardization and assembly line production methods on a large scale in all walks of life. This method has increased the wealth of the world by dozens of times. It can be said that your majesty has a far-sighted vision, which is why the world is so prosperous now."

"But the inherent flaw of this model is that, in order to improve efficiency, each production process is divided too finely. As far as I know, at Changan Horse Farm, the entire process of producing a carriage is divided into hundreds of steps. Craftsmen will be fixed in one place and only do one step. It takes hundreds of craftsmen to assemble a carriage, while in the past, only one craftsman and at most a few apprentices were needed to make a carriage."

Standardized and streamlined production has resulted in the need for hundreds of times more craftsmen and hundreds of more processes than before. Especially in the machinery industry, which is the pinnacle of Chinese industrial manufacturing, it requires mining, steel smelting, machinery manufacturing standard parts, and finally assembly. A tractor may require hundreds of thousands of people on the entire assembly line to serve it. The entire process is cross-industry, cross-regional, and cross-factory, and is extremely decentralized.

Any product of our Han Dynasty requires the cooperation of many industries to be produced. In the words of Your Majesty, this is the social division of labor, but the factories and industries in each process are controlled by individual merchants.

This leads to a huge contradiction. Often, when the market for a product is saturated, it is necessary to reduce production capacity to reduce losses for the entire world. However, because these factories are owned by businessmen, for their own interests and to compete in the market, they will not only not try to reduce production, but will expand more aggressively, using their own products to suppress the products of other peers. This expansion is unrestricted, and it can even be said that those businessmen will jump down with their eyes open even though they know the cliff is just ahead. This is an overcapacity of energy, which has triggered an economic crisis in the world.

Xu Aimin showed an interested look. The research on economic crisis in the Han Dynasty in recent years mainly focused on unfair distribution. As a result, the money in the hands of the people could not keep up with the growth of the Han Dynasty's industry. Jia Yi said that production control was a new research direction. Jia Yi found that Xu Aimin was interested and continued, "Let me take the overcapacity in the steel industry that you mentioned as an example. The court should have known about this situation and informed the major steel mills in the Han Dynasty, but will they listen to the court? The steel mills controlled by the court may listen, but private steel mills will not. The court also warned the previous two crises, but no businessmen listened at all because they were forced by the market to move on.

But if the steel industry were entirely state-run, there would be no such flaw. After the imperial court knew that the steel industry was in overcapacity, it could simply issue an order to have the entire Han steel industry begin to reduce production. It could even directly demolish some backward steel mills to restore the supply and demand balance in the market, and the so-called economic crisis would naturally disappear.

As long as the imperial court can control the entire industrial chain and then control each industry through the imperial court’s powerful hand, the so-called economic crisis can completely disappear before it breaks out.”

Xu Aimin applauded after hearing this and said, "Great! Father is right. Practice is indeed the best way to increase knowledge. Your knowledge is more profound than what you learned in the academy. I wish you could promote the official business to the entire Han Dynasty."

Zhang Shizhi and Chao Cuo looked at Jia Yi with envy. Although they were both the prince's attendants, they were just small fry, while Jia Yi was highly regarded by the prince. The gap in status between the two was too big.

On the 17th day of the second month of the 32nd year of the Han calendar, in Zhaoli, Chang'an City.

A tractor was humming in the field, and the villagers were amazed at this huge machine that was more powerful than an eight-ox plow. The villagers gathered around the tractor and marveled.

"With this machine, we don't even need cows to plow the fields anymore," exclaimed a villager.

Logically, because of their wealth, every household has one or two cows. Of course, this is their limit. It is not that they cannot afford more cows. After the desert was returned to the Han Dynasty, the price of Han cattle and horses has been very stable for more than 20 years, fluctuating roughly around three to four thousand coins.

However, they only have 100 acres of land, and two cows are enough for farming. Buying more cows would not only be a waste, but the cost of raising the cows would also be high.

Jiang Wu said, "You guys are really ignorant. There are already hundreds of tractors plowing the land over the Zhengguo Canal. You still don't know this. The Master said that as the price of tractors drops, we won't need cows to farm the land."

The villagers were in disbelief and said, "For thousands of years, we have always needed cows to farm. This is a rule passed down from our ancestors. How could it change? This iron cow is very strong, but my family only has 100 acres of land. How can we need such a big iron cow?"

Another villager also said: "Jiang Wu, don't think that you have more experience than us just because you studied in Chang'an for a few years. The price of steam engines has never been low. The price of such a complex tractor must not be low, and it is definitely not as practical as my old cow."

Then the villager shouted, "Hey man, how much is this tractor?"

"15 coins per unit, but the court has a preferential policy and you can get a loan to buy one."

"Huh!" The villagers in Zhaoli showed an expression of understanding. Between the old cow worth 3000 coins and the tractor worth 15 yuan, everyone naturally knew what to choose.

On the periphery, two old men were watching the scene with a smile.

Fusu sighed, "I am increasingly confused by the Han Dynasty. I was already amazed by the Han Dynasty's steam engine, and now there is even a tractor that can plow the land. I can't imagine what the future of the Han Dynasty will be like."

Since the off-season vegetables in Duli became popular, many villagers have been complaining about him. You know, it was Han Li who first came to Zhaoli to promote glass greenhouses, although they felt that the price of glass greenhouses was too high and they were unwilling to take the risk.

But this was not because Master Zhao started this. Everyone still liked to be lenient to themselves and strict with others, so naturally they directed all the blame at Fusu.

Of course, because Fusu’s prestige was so high, this generation of villagers in Zhaoli were almost all educated under his stick, and they could only complain secretly at most.

Fusu also knew about this, but he didn't take it to heart. For Zhao Li, it didn't matter whether there was a vegetable greenhouse or not.

Of course, this incident still touched him. Shanglinyuan has belonged to the Qin royal family since the Qin Dynasty. Although there were no glass greenhouses at that time, Qin officials had already developed hot spring vegetables in the ravines of Shanglinyuan. His father often rewarded these vegetables to important officials of the Qin Dynasty.

Decades ago, only the top people in the world could eat off-season vegetables. In the Han Dynasty, although the price was high, ordinary people could also taste them. The Han Emperor did much better than his father. He not only let the people of the world enjoy 30 years of peace, but also made the people of the world live better day by day, and set a grand goal of universal peace.

Putting aside the question of whether this goal can be achieved, but during the 30 years since the founding of the Han Dynasty, the country has indeed been moving towards this goal. He has to admire the willpower of the Han Emperor. Throughout the 30 years of his life, he has been moving in one direction without hesitation or deviation, always keeping his original intention. The willpower of the Han Emperor is stronger than that of his father. It is no exaggeration to say that he is as strong as steel.

Now, except for these remnants of the previous dynasty, everyone in the world has forgotten the Qin Dynasty. The Warring States period seems more like a story in history. But in fact, whether it is the Warring States period or the Qin Dynasty, it is only 60 years away from now, and the elderly are still witnesses of this history.

Wu Yue smiled and said, "I don't know what the Han Dynasty will be like in the future, but I know that the Han Dynasty of the future will definitely be better than the Han Dynasty of today."

Wu Yue continued, "Because of Chang'an, the farmers in Guanzhong are the happiest in the world. According to the emperor's well-off standards, Guanzhong has the most farmers. But if we want to further build a harmonious society, the independent farmers can no longer keep up with the times. This tractor costs 15 coins and can cultivate 1 acres of cultivated land a day. Fertilizers from overseas are four or five times more expensive than grain. If you are an independent farmer, you can't use these things."

"But tractors and fertilizers are advanced productive forces, as the emperor said. If you want to produce more food and more wealth, you can't do without these two tools. Only when all farmers unite, and a village buys a few tractors and orders fertilizers on a large scale, can we continue to increase food production capacity and increase farmers' income."

"I am sixty-two years old this year. According to the current development speed of the Han Dynasty, I think in another 20 years, the living standards of all people in the world will reach a well-off standard. I plan to continue to work hard and live for another 30 years to see if I can see what a world of great harmony will look like. Even if I cannot see the seeds that can lead to a world of great harmony, I can rest in peace." Wu Yue said with a smile.

Fusu said leisurely: "Indeed, the prosperity of Datong is something that people yearn for. I also want to see it. You can send students from farming families to help Zhaoli organize a farming community."

(End of this chapter)