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

Chapter 610: The Grand Court Meeting and the Development of the Han Dynasty
Jia Yi was worried that the number of agricultural cooperatives was growing too fast and that the farmers' technical staff could no longer keep up with the demand. Without refined and rational farming and increased productivity, it would be sheer wishful thinking to want to get rich by relying on agricultural cooperatives.

Jia Yi knew that even with the support of the court, the expansion of the agricultural society in the past few decades was still slow. There were only a few thousand formal disciples of the agricultural society. Even if the students of the Agricultural College were included, it would be difficult for the court to meet the current expansion speed of the agricultural society.

Feng Tang nodded and said, "The imperial court has begun to pay attention to this issue. A special fertilizer route has been established to transport fertilizer directly from the production area to the Han Dynasty. This can save twice the time."

Because of the establishment of agricultural cooperatives, the emperor's prestige among the people is very high, so the court also attaches great importance to industries related to agricultural cooperatives. Xu Aimin knows that there are not enough agricultural technical talents to develop agricultural cooperatives on a large scale. Fertilizer is the best helper. So he noticed that the price of fertilizer has risen and is trying to find new fertilizer islands. Nanyang is a key area because the waterways in this area are short and there is no need for tens of thousands of miles of sea transportation.

On April 40, the 4th year of the Han calendar, a grand court meeting was held in the Jianzhang Palace in Chang'an City.

The emperor sat high in the seat, with the three dukes and nine ministers of the Han Dynasty sitting on both sides.

Emperor Xu Aimin said with a serious face, "In the past two months, I have inspected the establishment of agricultural cooperatives in the seven counties of the Central Plains. As far as I have seen, there are good and bad things. On the good side, local county governors and county magistrates attach great importance to the construction of agricultural cooperatives. I don't know much about other situations. Among the 32 counties in the seven counties I inspected, the counties and towns with conditions have completed the transformation of agricultural cooperatives. Counties without conditions have at least one or more agricultural cooperatives. I asked the local county magistrates why it was so troublesome. The county magistrates told me that they wanted to start a model project to let farmers know what agricultural cooperatives look like and how they will develop. They will continue to expand when conditions are met. As long as the agricultural cooperatives can bring benefits to the people, the people will naturally welcome the arrival of the agricultural cooperatives. It can be seen that the local county magistrates used their brains when they encountered the decrees issued by the court, and they were also more pragmatic. They knew that the conditions were insufficient, so they concentrated their efforts on making a model, but they would do what they could and not do things beyond their capabilities.

From the villages I have visited, the income of most areas has increased significantly after the establishment of agricultural cooperatives, and the people also welcome the agricultural cooperatives. When I visited Dongjun, local people often asked me when the agricultural cooperatives would come to their hometowns. I really want to agree to the people's requests and increase their income, but I know that everything should be done within one's ability, so I can only tell these village elders that when the court has trained enough agricultural talents, manufactured more qualified tractors, and can buy more fertilizers overseas, the agricultural cooperatives can come to their hometowns. "

"The people of our Han Dynasty are very reasonable. Even though I did not give them a clear time, they expressed their willingness to wait."

"These are the good aspects, but there are also many bad aspects. Many areas do not have the conditions to build agricultural cooperatives, or the local people are unwilling to build agricultural cooperatives. However, the local county magistrates and county governors, for the sake of their own political achievements and to show off in front of me, force farmers to form cooperatives without considering whether the local conditions are suitable or the wishes of the farmers. They only want to please me.

My goodness, all the farmers in several counties have joined the agricultural cooperatives. There are hundreds of agricultural cooperatives in one county. They don't care whether there are agricultural talents, whether the tractors distributed by the court are enough, or whether the fertilizers given to them are enough for so many agricultural cooperatives. They only know that I said to build agricultural cooperatives, so they built all the villages into agricultural cooperatives without caring about anything. "

"I have also said that we should do what we can, but these Han officials did not listen to me and took my words to interpret what they wanted to hear and do. Did I build the agricultural society just for the name? I built the agricultural society because it is a new production relationship that can cooperate with the new productivity, increase the production capacity of grain, and make the people rich. The rich people are the result I want to see.

These people just made up a name, just like the fool who covered his ears and stole the bell in the idiom. Will the world achieve its goals just because you have a name? If it is really possible, I will change the name of Dahan to Datong Kingdom, and the world will be Datong.

These Han officials are either stupid or bad. If the agricultural cooperative is a good thing, farmers will not want to join it. You need to be the bad guy here. Their approach will not only fail to make the agricultural cooperative develop better, but will consume the prestige of the court. They use the prestige of the court to make political achievements for them. Do they think they have such a big face? I don’t even dare to do this.

"Tingwei."

The Minister of Justice Zhang Hui stood up and saluted, saying, "I am here!"

"After the court meeting, send officials to investigate and see if the Han officials in these counties continue to oppress the people."

Zhang Hui said: "I obey your order."

Xu Aimin looked at his ministers and said coldly, "I will say it again. I promote agricultural cooperatives to increase grain production and make the people rich. You should keep an eye on the Han officials below and don't let them turn a deaf ear to the bell. They have no ability to increase grain production and make the people rich, so they just do something easier to do, change the name and establish an agricultural cooperative, as if a rich life will come this way."

The three dukes and nine ministers, headed by Prime Minister Li Shang, said, "We obey your order!"

The agricultural cooperatives developed rapidly, even showing signs of spreading like wildfire. Xu Aimin was very happy because this was the policy he proposed. The people benefited from the agricultural cooperatives and would naturally support him, and his prestige was naturally established.

Therefore, he was extremely supportive of the construction of agricultural cooperatives in various places, but the old officials of the Zhongshujian persuaded Xu Aimin that the rapid development of agricultural cooperatives in Guanzhong was due to the accumulation of farmers for decades, plus the good foundation of Guanzhong, but how could other regions have the conditions and talents of farmers in Guanzhong, and even how to solve the problem of establishing so many agricultural cooperatives at once.

The opposition from so many ministers made Xu Aimin a little hesitant. Xu Fan also asked him to go to the Central Plains to have a look. Seeing is believing, hearing is not. Xu Fan also asked him to split his troops into two groups. He sent one of his confidants to patrol secretly while patrolling in the open on one group.

Xu Aimin listened to his father's words and made a high-profile inspection tour of the Central Plains. At the same time, he sent Liu Heng to inspect the local areas secretly. As expected, he found many people who were committing fraud.

After the court meeting, Xu Aimin left behind Prime Minister Li Shang and Shangshu Ling Yuan Ang and said, "Originally, I was very happy to hear in Chang'an that the number of agricultural cooperatives had doubled in more than a year, and that the people in all counties of the Han Dynasty had written to me to establish agricultural cooperatives in their local areas. But when I really saw it from below, I was a little disappointed. Our Han officials only care about their superiors and not their subordinates. Many county officials can't even seek truth from facts. They just see that there are 20 agricultural cooperatives in other counties, so they want to set up 30 or 40. They want to overwhelm and deal with one. When establishing agricultural cooperatives, they don't care about the local economic situation or the number of local talents. They just do it as they please. The goals set by the court for them are to double or quadruple, as if they can't show their talents if they don't do this."

"If they really had this ability, I would be happy, but they made a mess of it, causing heavy losses to the local people and also eroding the credibility of the court. The Prime Minister's Office must strictly supervise the misbehavior of local Han officials."

Li Shang nodded and said, "I obey your order!"

Then Xu Aimin sighed, "No wonder my father forbade Han officials to interfere when the Han Dynasty was just founded. My father was foresighted. Local Han officials knew that I liked to promote agricultural cooperatives, so they did whatever they wanted without considering the actual situation. Fortunately, the situation is still serious now. If the world is in turmoil because of these Han officials, wouldn't I have to take the blame for them?"

If he had not gone to the local area to see, he would not have known that these Han officials dared to act so recklessly in order to please him. It seemed that the First Emperor's failure was due to the continuous increase in the taxes by the Qin officials under him, which eventually led to the collapse of the entire Qin Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Xu Aimin said to Yuan Ang: "You must submit the memorials from the local wise men and the people who come to Chang'an to file complaints to me as soon as possible. If there is no supervision from the wise men and the people, I am afraid that the local Han officials will really think of themselves as the Marquis of Baili."

Yuan Ang said: "I obey your orders!"

Then Xu Aimin asked his attendant to bring the memorial for his review.

Unlike Xu Fan who likes to rule by letting others rule, Xu Aimin spends more time on governing the country. He knows that the Han Dynasty was conquered by his father, and even if his father rules by letting others rule, it will not affect his prestige, but he does not have his father's prestige. If he tries to learn from his father's rule by letting others rule, he will probably be sidelined by the ministers.

Therefore, after he became emperor, he strengthened the Shangshu Ling, intensified the supervision of the Nine Ministers' offices, and even established a secret reporting system with the Han county governors to strengthen the connection with the local county governors, to achieve supervision and reflection, to prevent the Nine Ministers from deceiving himself. At the same time, he also brought out the opinion collection box from that year, so that the people of the world have a place to communicate with him, the Son of Heaven, in person.

In recent years, he has been particularly concerned about the letters from people outside Guanzhong, because even in this era with trains, it is very difficult for ordinary people to come to Chang'an City. If people dare to take such great risks and difficulties to come to Chang'an City to file a complaint, then in nine out of ten cases, there must be a very serious injustice in the local area. As long as the imperial censor is sent to investigate, it will almost certainly be accurate. This has become an important channel for Xu Aimin to communicate with people all over the world.

Soon Xu Aimin saw Jia Yi's letter and immediately asked, "Is the drought in the south serious?"

Yuan Ang said: "Lingling County, Wuling County, and the southern part of Changsha County have all suffered disasters, as have some princes in the south. There has been no rainfall in the area for half a year, and spring ploughing has been greatly affected. The Prime Minister's Office has issued an order to exempt the three counties from taxes and allocate disaster relief supplies. Among them, Lingling County, which was the most severely affected by the disaster, has even started work-for-relief, allowing local people to repair roads and bridges. Even though the grain production in the three places has decreased this year, the court has tried its best to ensure that the people's income does not decrease."

Xu Aimin looked at the letter and said, "Jia Qing wants to start the government-run reform in Changsha County, Lingling County, and Wuling County. Jia Qing said that the three counties are poor. If the court does not organize the people in the three counties, the three counties will find it difficult to compete with the vassal states in the south, and it will be impossible for the three counties to become rich. Jiujiang County and Hengshan County finally caught up from the barren land in the south because of the government-run reform. Although they are still not as good as the several wealthy industrial counties of the Han Dynasty, they have caught up anyway."

Yuan Ang said, "The three counties are vast, and they need a lot of talents from the agricultural, Mohist, and Legalist schools. The court wants to promote agricultural societies, so it has even sent out students who have just graduated from the Agricultural College." Xu Aimin said, "Find a way to get some technical talents for Jia Qing."

"According to the order!"

After reading the memorials from the country, Xu Aimin asked his attendants to bring out the memorials from ministers and princes outside the Han Dynasty, but this time he asked Yuan Ang to read them to him.

Yuan Ang flipped through the memorial and said, "The King of Tang has united the princes of the New World and has written to the court to build a railway network connecting the princes of the entire New World, asking for the court's support."

Xu Aimin took out a map of the New World, and then linked the territories of the various princes in the New World and said, "Is this not a small project?"

Yuan Ang said: "The King of Tang intends to use the Sanfan gold mine and the gold and silver mines in the territories of the princes as collateral to borrow 500 billion to build the railway."

Xu Aimin thought for a moment and said, "Let the money banker go to the New World to negotiate with my second brother."

Yuan Ang continued, "Ambassador Zhang has completed negotiations with the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu agreed to connect their domestic railway network with the Han Dynasty. At the same time, the managers of the four major banks wrote to the court to request the establishment of a Shaofu Yamen to manage the assets of the princes."

Then Yuan Ang briefly talked about the managers of the four major money houses buying at the bottom in Xiongnu.

Xu Aimin thought for a moment and said, "Let's use the Xiongnu Kingdom as a pilot."

Xu Aimin looked at the map of the Xiongnu. After the Xiongnu's railway network was connected with the Western Region Tianzhu, the railway network of our Han Dynasty could reach directly to the center of the World Island, which greatly strengthened the control over the World Island.

But he soon saw the blank space in the Seleucid region, which struck him as very conspicuous.

"Order the Consulate General to find a way to persuade the Seleucid Empire to agree to the Han Dynasty's construction of a railway network. Control and shares can give them preferential treatment. If the Seleucid Empire still refuses, find a way to replace the king with one who listens to the Han Dynasty."

"promise!"

"Yanzhou Governor Ding He and Tianzhu Fleet Lieutenant General Liu Bi wrote to the emperor, hoping to build a railway connecting Xiongnu Bay to Yanzhou Governor's Office."

"They also want to build a railway?" Xu Aimin found a world map and discovered that this area was either Gobi or desert. More importantly, after the Shuyis Canal was opened, the two places could be connected by sea and land. There was no need to spend such a huge cost to build such a railway.

Xu Aimin said: "Tell the two old generals that the court's finances are tight and their plans will be temporarily postponed."

In this way, domestic and international affairs kept Xu Aimin busy until late at night.

Let’s talk about two things at the same time: Chang’an City, Bashang Machinery Factory.

Xu Fan, wearing a helmet, watched a huge boring machine boring a red-hot iron ingot into a container bit by bit. Such a small pressure tank not only caused trouble, but also had a very small size. It was not that Xu Fan did not want to make a big one, but the big man did not have the mechanical level to do so.

"In five years at most, Nai Gong will definitely make an electric welding machine. It's too difficult to make a pressure vessel with a whole piece of iron. It's better to use iron sheets." Xu Fan said gritting his teeth.

Xu Fan had already invented a telegraph machine, which became a source of income as soon as it came out. According to the current standards of the Han Dynasty, within a thousand miles, one word was worth 100 coins, and beyond a thousand miles, every additional 100 miles would add 10 coins. The telegraph office soon became the most prosperous industry in the Han Dynasty. Many wealthy people in the Han Dynasty who needed quick information became the first batch of telegraph customers. Now all counties in the Han Dynasty are applying to build telegraph offices, and the constraint on the telegraph office is the efficiency of the Han Dynasty in training talents. How can the Han Dynasty open a telegraph technical college to maintain it?

The telegraph has become an emerging industry that has quickly exceeded 10 billion, and its value is still growing rapidly. Dahan has formulated a 10-year telegraph plan, intending to use 5 years to cover the entire Dahan with a telegraph network, and another years to cover the entire world with a telegraph network, allowing information from all over the world to be sent overnight. If this is really achieved, this will be an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Of course, in addition to the telegraph, Xu Fan also invented generators, dry batteries, electric lights and other equipment of the electric age. Chang'an already had an experimental electric street. In order to speed up the Han Dynasty's research on electricity, Xu Fan even served as the principal and established the Electric Power College.

However, with the current level of electrical research in the Han Dynasty, there is no way to develop an electric welder for the time being. However, this thing is commonly used in many places. For example, the Han Dynasty's current steel ships use the rivet technology that Xu Fan has only heard of. Pressure vessels are even more difficult to make. This thing cannot have gaps, so rivets will not work, and only boring machines can be used. But if there are electric welders, the efficiency of producing pressure vessels can be increased by at least dozens of times. So now Xu Fan misses the electric welders that were everywhere back then.

Zhang Cang, who was following Xu Fan, said helplessly: "Grand Emperor, even if you don't care about government affairs, don't come to the machinery factory. It's too dangerous here."

The noisy noise of the machinery factory was even unbearable for Zhang Cang. He could hardly imagine why the emperor liked to come to such a place.

Xu Fan said helplessly: "Who asked you to come here? Do you know what this is used for?"

Zhang Cang said: "Isn't this used to refine kerosene?"

Xu Fan was speechless and could only take Zhang Cang away from here and come to a quiet meeting room.

Zhang Cang asked, "Your Majesty, are you so confident about what's going on in the court?"

Xu Fan said: "You and I are both old. This world will eventually be handed over to the young to govern. And judging from the current situation, the young man Dahan is doing well. Dahan is still moving forward. Why should I be worried?"

Then Xu Fan sighed, "To be honest with you, the current development of the Han Dynasty has exceeded my expectations. I really didn't expect that the Han Dynasty could be so prosperous at its current level of productivity. I originally expected that the arrival of the steam engine would at most allow ordinary people in the Han Dynasty to have enough food to eat and a small number of regions to achieve a well-off life, but the reality is obviously much better than I expected."

This is what Xu Fan really thinks. He lives in the information age, where productivity has advanced three orders of magnitude compared to this era. But in his world, how many people can guarantee that their salary can support their family?

But in Dahan, it can be done easily. Three big mountains are no longer big mountains here. The young people in Dahan live much better than their descendants. What else can he be dissatisfied with?

(End of this chapter)