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

Chapter 587, Xu Aimin's Affluent Society

October 35, 10th year of the Han calendar, Chang'an City, Prince's Mansion.

The Han Dynasty did not have a formal imperial palace. Xu Fan had disliked the Qin palace for wasting space, so he converted most of it into government offices. Even after Xu Aimin ascended the throne, he still lived in his own Prince's Mansion. But from now on, this place no longer needs to be called the Prince's Mansion, it can be said to be a palace.

At this time, Xu Aimin summoned his trusted retainers. After more than a year of expansion, Xu Aimin's retainers also expanded to include Chen Mai, Zhang Yang, Guan He, Liu Yun and other New World figures.

He suppressed his inner excitement and said, "I have just inherited the throne. How should I handle the government affairs next?"

Zhang Pijiang thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty has just ascended the throne, and everything should be kept stable. This transfer of fiefs from the Han Dynasty is a time for Your Majesty to accumulate prestige."

The Han Dynasty was a semi-feudal and semi-industrialized country. In order to prevent the feudal system from hindering the development of industrialization, Xu Fan abolished all the original feudal systems. In a normal feudal country, a new emperor would usually grant amnesty to the country and then enfeoff meritorious officials when he ascended the throne, but Xu Aimin could not do all these. The Imperial Censorate and the Supreme Court of the Han Dynasty were relatively independent systems, and there had been no tradition of general amnesty since the founding of the Han Dynasty.

Secondly, enfeoffment of meritorious officials is not an option. If the Han Dynasty wants to enfeoff meritorious officials, first, they must have military merits, and second, they must have inventions that are beneficial to the world. If you cannot meet these two requirements, the original princes and nobles of the Han Dynasty will not agree. They risked their lives to become noble princes of the Han Dynasty. Why can you be on an equal footing with them without doing anything? You must know that the number of princes in the Han Dynasty exceeded 400, and they were also a political force that could not be ignored within the Han Dynasty.

The core of the Han Dynasty is actually closer to a modern country. Just like Xu Aimin and his group of servants, Xu Aimin can be placed in grassroots positions in the Han court, but unlike the princes in feudal history who had a small backup court, they could not promote themselves. After these servants entered the Han system, they would be assessed by the Prime Minister's Office, and their promotion would be decided by the Prime Minister's Office. On the contrary, the prince's servant system was established as a small faction and was incompatible with the original system of the Han Dynasty.

But that doesn't mean Xu Aimin has no way to reward his meritorious officials. Last year, the princes of Mobei formed a coalition and taught the Huns a lesson. Even the Huns' Chanyu was killed. This was one of the rare major battles in the Han Dynasty in recent years. Therefore, many princes have made contributions. These princes of Mobei want to exchange this military merit for a fiefdom. As long as Xu Aimin settles these princes of Mobei, his prestige will be established.

Xu Aimin nodded and said, "Pijiang's words make sense."

Having more resources is beneficial. For matters like relocation of fiefs, the princes of the Han Dynasty can also discuss with the imperial court. As long as you have made military achievements and want to relocate to a wealthier area, the imperial court can do it for you. The Han Dynasty, which controls several continents, has no shortage of rich fiefs. Yanzhou has only developed a dozen points so far, and these dozen reclamation points are not for obtaining Yanzhou's resources. They are mainly for supporting global maritime trade. These places are all seaport reclamation points.

Last year, the Han Dynasty discovered another large continent, which was named Nanzhou by the court. However, this continent is extremely desolate. The Han Dynasty court only established a reclamation site and then sent more than a dozen expedition teams to investigate the local specialties and then prepare for development based on the richness of the specialties of this continent. From this we can see that the Han Dynasty’s spare land is extremely rich, and the transfer of princes is not a problem at all.

Xu Aimin clapped his hands, asked a guard to display a large world map and said, "I plan to move some of the princes to Tianzhu Continent and some to Yanzhou Continent. At the southernmost tip of Yanzhou Continent, there is an extremely huge gold mine. My father said that this gold mine is the largest in the world. The court can move 10 princes there and split the gold they dig out -."

These princes had mentioned the matter of relocation to the Han court last year. Based on Xu Fan's advice, Xu Aimin decided to enfeoff the princes near various trading points of the Han Dynasty, intending to establish a global trade network. A large number of the princes who will be relocated this time will go to the Yanzhou Continent.

Chen Mai said calmly: "Your Majesty, the Third Prince has come of age, you should enfeoff him and fulfill the brotherhood."

Chen Mai's words immediately woke up the others. Jia Yi, Liu Heng, Yuan Ang and almost all the other servants advised to enfeoff the three princes.

Now that the succession to the throne has been settled, Xu Aimin has given birth to two princes and a princess in the past two years. There is no shortage of heirs to the throne. However, the adult prince of the retired emperor is a huge threat to Xu Aimin, and the best thing to do is to let him leave the Han homeland.

"You said where to enfeoff my brother!" Seeing that his confidants were persuading him to enfeoff his brother, Xu Aimin was still a little sad. There were some things that he could not control even if he became an emperor.

Chen Mai said firmly: "Tianzhu, Tianzhu Trading Company has become too big to be shaken off. Now the court will split up Tianzhu Trading Company and make Tianzhu a part of our Han feudal system. At the same time, it will also eliminate the huge hidden danger of Tianzhu Trading Company."

Now the trade volume between Tianzhu Trading Company and Han Dynasty exceeds 30 billion yuan every year, and the profit of Tianzhu Trading Company in Tianzhu exceeds billion yuan every year, which ranks among the top three in the feudal system of Han Dynasty. Although Tianzhu Trading Company is called a trading company, it has now become the political core of Tianzhu. If the trading company is changed to the Tianzhu court, it is the court of a country.

The Tianzhu Trading Company can be said to be an unprecedented existence. Although there are many merchants in the Han Dynasty who are as rich as a country, only the Tianzhu Trading Company is truly a huge country. Now the Han Dynasty court no longer allows such a huge trading company to exist.

Xu Aimin said, "Okay, I will make my fifth brother the King of Tianzhu and give him the land of Tianzhu."

After talking about the enfeoffment of princes, Xu Aimin began to put forward his own political goals: "When my father was the emperor, he proposed the ideal of the Great Harmony and the three-step strategy. First, solve hunger, which the court did within five years. Then solve food and clothing, which the court also spent almost 10 years to do. Then is to achieve a moderately prosperous society. This is the most difficult, but the court has worked hard for 20 years. The annual income of most farmers in my Han Dynasty can reach 3 coins. I dare not say that we have achieved a moderately prosperous society, but it is certain that most of them have achieved a moderately prosperous society.

Since I have ascended the throne, I will naturally continue along my father's path. The Great Harmony World is a distant goal, and it is the direction that guides our Han Dynasty. It is difficult to achieve the Great Harmony World within 100 years. But the court must give the people of our Han Dynasty a visible and tangible goal. I think the goal of achieving a prosperous society in the Han Dynasty will be achieved within years. "

"Affluent society?" He had heard of affluent life. Many people in the Han Dynasty lived affluently, but this was the first time he had heard of affluent society. Everyone looked at Xu Aimin.

Xu Aimin smiled and said: "A wealthy society is an advanced version of a well-off society. The standard of a wealthy society that I have set is that a household has an annual income of more than 6 coins.

When the industrial population exceeds the agricultural population, the main wealth of society should be generated by industry, and the profits generated by industry should be fed back to agriculture to increase farmers' income.

Third, welfare benefits must be increased, and the obstacles to poverty that people encounter in their daily lives must be resolved. The court must solve the three major problems of housing, medical care, and education for the people.

Fourth, to achieve balanced development of the entire Han Dynasty. Now Guanzhong is the richest place in the world, and people from all over the world are flocking to Guanzhong. This has caused congestion in Guanzhong, lack of development momentum in border counties, and separation of couples and families, seriously affecting the people's happy life.
This trend is wrong. The court should close this gap and allow the people to have a prosperous life even in Shangjun. Although the salary is not as good as that in Guanzhong, it will not be much different, and the welfare benefits are also similar. "

In my vision, a wealthy society will be one with a sound social welfare system, a high quality of life for the people, and the people of Dahan will be able to produce more wealth with more efficient machines. The efficiency of factories will be higher than it is now, and they will be fully mechanized. All those small manual workshops will be eliminated as much as possible. "

Zhang Pijiang and others looked at each other, wondering if the emperor's ambition was too big. If you don't call this a wealthy society, you can definitely call it a world of great harmony.

But this political goal is not easy to achieve. Let's take the easiest thing to solve: the annual income of a household is more than 6 coins. But according to this standard, it is unknown whether even % of the entire Han Dynasty can reach this number. This requires a dual-income family with each person earning more than coins per month.

In the Han Dynasty, it is now normal for women to work outside, and there are still many of them. Now there are many women in the positions of nurses, doctors, teachers, textile industry, etc., but the Han Dynasty is only in the first industrial revolution, and those jobs that do not require physical strength are still scarce. The service industry is even less likely to become the mainstream of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, there are many women working outside in the Han Dynasty. This is only compared with the feudal era, but if compared with the era when Xu Fan lived, it is far less. The vast majority of women in the Han Dynasty are still housewives. The mainstream of the Han Dynasty society is still that men are responsible for the outside world and women are responsible for the inside world. To achieve an annual income of 6 coins, you need a job with a monthly salary of 5000 coins. This is already considered a high-income group in the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty's non-commissioned officers, overseas sailors, Han officials with more than stones in the court, excellent clerks in money houses, small industrialists and businessmen with their own stores, old craftsmen with ten years of experience in factories, or master craftsmen can meet this standard. These can be said to be people above the middle class in the Han Dynasty.

In fact, it is easier to deal with in the industry. The wealth from industrial production has increased rapidly in recent years. According to this trend, it is not impossible for a middle-class family in the Han Dynasty to achieve a median income of 5000 yuan in salary in ten years.

But it is very difficult for farmers to rely on their own 100 acres of land. The Han Dynasty spent 50 years and just barely brought most farmers into a well-off life. To double their income again is several times more difficult than a well-off life. Especially in rural areas, affected by the influence of the "many children, more blessings", many places only had 50 acres of land after the division of families. This has been the trend in the Han Dynasty. The increase in population has made it impossible for the court to maintain the standard of acres of land. Now many places only divide up acres of land, and even more places no longer divide land. The new second generation of farmers in the Han Dynasty either go to the city to work hard, or go to the vassal states of the Han Dynasty to reclaim wasteland.

It is hard to imagine how difficult it is to earn 50 yuan with 6 mu of land. Even if all the land is planted with cash crops, it is still impossible.

Not to mention housing, medical care, and education. Now a house in the imperial court costs hundreds of thousands of yuan. A serious illness can make a wealthy family poor again, not to mention education. Even though the Han Dynasty's finances were dozens of times richer than when the country was founded, the only compulsory education was primary school. Because of the increase in population, the cost of compulsory education has increased several times.

Chen Mai whispered, "Your Majesty, your standard of wealth is too high. It is possible for a craftsman to earn 6 yuan a year, but it is too difficult for a farmer to earn yuan a year. Especially the three major problems you mentioned, housing, medical care, and education, all cost money. Where does the money come from?"

Xu Aimin smiled and said, "According to the experiments of agricultural scholars, as long as the fertilizer is applied properly, one mu of land can produce ten dan of grain. A farmer with 100 mu of land can earn 1000 dan. One mu of wheat is 50 coins, which is 5 coins. One third of the cost of farming is the cost, which is 3 coins. This is just for growing grain. If 5 mu of land is used to grow cash crops, the income can be increased."

"As for the three major problems of housing, medical care, and education, my idea is that the Shaofu should pay for the money. The factories controlled by the Shaofu belong to all the people of the Han Dynasty, so the money they earn should also serve the people of the Han Dynasty. I plan to use all the money earned by the Shaofu for the welfare of the people of the Han Dynasty, so that we can truly take from the people and use it for the people."

Now everyone present was so shocked that they were speechless. The Shaofu controlled the most profitable industry in the entire Han Dynasty, and could provide the Han court with more than 30 billion in income every year. This was the largest source of financial resources for the Han court. To say that it was used to distribute welfare was truly unprecedented.

The Han Dynasty spent about 120 billion coins on education and medical care every year. Houses were generally purchased and built by the people themselves. Of course, there was a Construction Cao in the past two years, but this was a money-making government office. If all the money from the Shaofu was used to solve these three major problems, the spending on education and medical care could be nearly doubled.

But the key is that this money is taken from the court, and the court's administrative expenses will be reduced by more than 100 billion. How can the court make up for such a large gap? I am afraid that the prime minister in charge of the court will oppose it. The Han officials inside and outside will not agree.

Zhang Pijiang immediately said: "Your Majesty, the emperor also formulated a three-step strategy. In my opinion, your affluent society can also formulate a three-step strategy. The first step is to build a primary affluent society within ten years, with a family income of 4 coins, and the court will increase its investment in education and medical care by 4% within ten years.

The second step is to build a moderately affluent society within 20 years, with annual family income reaching 5 yuan, compulsory education gradually being popularized in middle schools, and half of the medical expenses for ordinary people being subsidized.

The third step is to build a high-level affluent society within 30 years, with a family income of 6 yuan, compulsory education universal to middle schools, and free medical care.

"This way, we can achieve the goal of a prosperous society step by step. Each goal is not necessarily too high, and it can be achieved within two terms. It will make the people of the Han Dynasty feel more satisfied, and it will also give the officials of the court a goal in their administration, so that they will not be too radical and force things to happen."

Xu Aimin thought for a moment and said, "Pijiang's words make sense."

This three-step approach is indeed easier to achieve than realizing a prosperous society in 30 years, and it is also easier to gain satisfaction.

Zhang Pijiang continued, "Your Majesty, the idea of ​​the Emperor's conquest of the world is to concentrate superior forces to fight a war of annihilation. This is also true for governing the world. The Shaofu is an important part of the Han Dynasty's finances. Your active isolation is actually not conducive to the court's governance. You can slowly increase investment in housing, medical care, and education, instead of investing the Shaofu's income into welfare in a one-size-fits-all manner."

Xu Aimin frowned when he heard this. He would want to separate the income of the Shaofu from the court and use it for welfare expenditures for all the people of the Han Dynasty.

The reason is very simple. It is still the traditional feudal emperor's thinking at work. He was also influenced by the people's support for his father Xu Fan's abdication. Since amnesty is not possible, he will give a wave of benefits to the people of the world to let the people of the Han Dynasty know that the emperor is on their side.

Jia Yi stepped out and said, "I think your Majesty's measure is feasible, and should even go a step further. Not only medical care and education, but also pensions, unemployment benefits and other benefits should be included, and all kinds of court benefits should be separated from the court's administrative expenses."

"The court's economic situation was not good in the past two years. Officials at all levels of the court used all kinds of methods to embezzle the education and medical funds issued by the court to the local areas. Many local teachers and doctors could not even get their salaries. This kind of thing happened all over the Han Dynasty. Even if many Han officials were punished, it was difficult to avoid it. I think that the court's expenditures on education, medical care, pensions, relief funds and other welfare expenditures should be separated from the court's government affairs system and not let Han officials handle them. This can not only ensure that the court's special funds are used for their intended purposes, but also protect Han officials."

Zhang Shizhi, Chao Cuo, Yuan Ang and others all expounded Jia Yi's statement.

Yuan Ang even said: "It's not just pensions and relief funds. The court's subsidies to farmers are often missing. The lower the Han officials are, the more they keep an eye on the farmers. Even if they don't dare to take it all for themselves, they have to pass it on. Farmers who want to get subsidies from the court always encounter various obstacles. This is not serving the farmers, this is making trouble out of nothing."

Yuan Ang is now a Confucian scholar, but he is doing agricultural work. He even worshipped Wu Yue as his teacher and learned agricultural technology. No Confucianist said that Yuan Ang was a traitor. All the schools of thought learned from each other, and they worshipped more than one or two teachers. The key is which school you recognize when you introduce yourself. At least now Yuan Ang also considers himself a Confucian, which is enough. Xunzi is a great Confucian, but he taught two masters of the Legalist school. Using the resources of the farmers to cultivate Confucian masters is a win-win for Confucianism.

For Yuan Ang, the agricultural community was his political foundation, and those Han officials who hindered the development of the agricultural community were his political enemies.

For a time, Xu Aimin's ministers were divided into two factions. One faction wanted to separate the Shaofu to make it easier for them to do things, while the other faction did not want to worry about causing conflicts between the Emperor and the Prime Minister's Office.

Liu Heng thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, separating the Shaofu is a big deal. Haste makes waste. Your Majesty should simply formulate a step-by-step strategy and increase it a little each year. The court's expenditure on welfare is growing very fast every year. When the difference between the income of the Shaofu and that of the Shaofu is almost the same, then separating it at this time will have the least obstacles."

Xu Aimin had been a Han official for ten years. He was not a young man who had just come to power. He knew that his prestige was insufficient and that if he wanted to carry out reforms he had to do so step by step. So he agreed with Liu Heng's words.

Zhang Pijiang and Chen Mai both breathed a sigh of relief.

(End of this chapter)