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

Chapter 617: Local Conflicts and the Mohist Conference

Chen Rui was a little surprised and asked: "Strengthen the power of the court?"

In Chen Rui's opinion, the power of the court is already very great. Most of the tax revenue in the world is concentrated in the hands of the court. Except for a few large counties, the rest of the local county governors almost all rely on the transfer payments of the court to carry out infrastructure. In this day and age, whoever controls the money has more power. Every year, the county governors run projects for their own counties, not to mention the large factories controlled by the Shaofu, all of which are the most profitable projects in the world. The resources controlled by the Han court far exceed those of the tyrannical Qin.

Xu Aimin said: "The court should strengthen the supervision and control of the national industrial chain to balance the gap between the rich and the poor in the local areas. For example, the land of Bashu was also a land of abundance in the previous dynasty. It was the largest granary of the tyrannical Qin outside of Guanzhong. When the tyrannical Qin conquered Chu, the grain of Bashu played a key role."

But after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the Bashu region gradually couldn't keep up with the development of the Han Dynasty. Only Shu County was slightly richer, but compared with the large counties in the Central Plains, it could only be considered second-class at best. The other Ba County and Nanzhong region were already one of the poorest regions in the Han Dynasty due to geographical reasons.

In order to solve the development problem of Bashu, the imperial court built plank roads and railways in Qinling Mountains, blasted the reefs in the Yangtze River, built docks, and arranged for some high-value cash crops to be planted in Bashu, which was somewhat effective. "

As for other regions like Longxi, the desert, and Jiangnan, the imperial court must also find ways to transfer some industries to drive regional development, but these are not what the local county governors want to see, so I want to strengthen the court's rights in industrial layout and reduce local interference.

After pondering for a long time, Chen Rui asked, "How does your majesty want to strengthen it?"

Xu Aimin said: "It would be best if the Nine Ministers' Offices could be managed vertically to the local level. At the very least, they should have certain supervisory powers."

Xu Aimin also felt helpless about this. The growth of local forces had already affected the Han court's plans for the world.

For example, if the Han Dynasty wanted to build a railway, the local governments would naturally want to extend the railway and have it pass through more of their counties for their own interests. In order to balance the interests of the local counties, the Han Dynasty had to do a lot of work.

In addition, the court's financial investment in schools and clinics would also be intercepted by local governments. Among the nine ministers of the Han Dynasty, the Imperial Academy Order had the least power, and the doctors were not even in the government offices of the nine ministers. However, their government offices had the largest annual expenses, and the expenses were extremely scattered and difficult to manage. These two government offices became the children holding gold in the downtown area.

Xu Fan had seen many funeral arrangements, so he established a system for disbursing funds for this purpose, which was to use the funds for specific purposes. Masters and doctors all had special bank accounts.

But unfortunately, no matter how good the system is, it cannot withstand the test of time. When many people set their sights on this money, they will always find loopholes in the system.

Almost every year in the Han Dynasty, there would be several incidents where local counties would use this money. They would either collude with the managers of the money houses or threaten the teachers in the schools to get the money out, and then invest the money in factories controlled by the local county governor.

The most capable businessmen in the entire Han Dynasty were either in the imperial court or private factory owners who had fought their way out of the army. Factories controlled by county officials were generally no match for these people. Sometimes even the Han Dynasty court could not compete with them.

However, what Xu Fan did in the face of this situation was subtraction. Just as the competition in the textile industry was becoming increasingly fierce at the time, Xu Fan asked the Shaofu to completely withdraw from the textile industry and let private businessmen run this fiercely competitive industry.

There is also a ready-made clothing market. At the beginning, the Shaofu of the Han Dynasty had the largest ready-made clothing manufacturing factory. Xu Fan also imitated later generations and set up one, the Chang'an Fashion Week, which is specifically for promoting ready-made clothing. There are new clothes almost every season, facing the workers' market, women's market, farmers' market, children's market, and student market of the Han Dynasty. Different clothes are made for different seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Thanks to this advanced system and promotion concept, when Chang'an Garment Factory was at its largest, it had 2 textile workers and established branch factories in ten counties of the Han Dynasty. It could produce tens of millions of pieces of various clothes every year. At its peak, the factory occupied half of the world's ready-made clothing market. But this golden age lasted only less than 10 years.

The technical content of the garment market is too low. All you need to do is recruit a few female workers and get a few textile machines to set up a small garment workshop. You don’t even need to hire workers, and the whole family can produce around these machines.

The styles are either copied from those in Changan Fashion Week, and then they make some modifications, and the new clothes are out, and the key is that the price is still low. In terms of threshold, the threshold for building a garment factory is lower than that of a textile factory, and it is much lower.

After the merchants of the Han Dynasty saw that the imperial court made money in the garment market, thousands or even tens of thousands of small garment factories were established almost every year. Of course, correspondingly, thousands or even tens of thousands of garment factories also closed down every year.

In such a fiercely competitive market, there are piles of bones beneath the garment factories where everyone has fought to survive.

The imperial court held a fashion week in Chang'an, so these private garment factories joined together to hold a fashion week in Luoyang.

The imperial court's factories would at most launch new clothing products every year when the seasons change, but the sincere factories in the private sector were even more impressive. They would launch new clothing products almost every month, more than a dozen models at a time, and they would concentrate on producing the most popular model.

The difference in production efficiency between the two sides was not that big, but these private garment factories were too flexible. Every factory that survived could not be underestimated. Soon, the Han Dynasty's factories were defeated and could not hold on to the market, not to mention the Chang'an City base. The court had no choice but to give up the garment market.

But Xu Fan was doing subtraction, while the Han county governors liked to do addition. The Han court abandoned the market, but the other Han officials believed that just because the court was not good, it didn't mean they were not good, so they took over these factories and joined these fiercely competitive industries.

But it is obvious that even the Han Dynasty court could not compete with those private factories. How could the resources possessed by the Han Dynasty's counties possibly compare with those of the Han Dynasty court? After the county officials took over these factories, they soon ran out of money. Not only did they not make money, but they had to pay to maintain the factory. When they could not even afford the expenses, they

They would try to prevent clothes from other places from entering the local area, either by setting up checkpoints on the road, or by raising taxes, and even levying these ready-made clothes on students, work clothes for Shaofu craftsmen, etc. In short, they would use all means to maintain the factory. They wanted to separate their territory from the entire Han market, which was exactly the same as the practice of the bald eagle in later generations.

During the five years that Xu Aimin was emperor, he felt that the governors under him wanted to split the Han Dynasty into 60 parts. When they could not compete, they wanted to cheat and establish their own regimes.

For example, after the misappropriation of funds was discovered, the local Han officials did not think they had done anything wrong, but complained to the court, saying that the court only knew how to collect taxes from them and did not care about their lives at all. They withheld some money for themselves, not for corruption or enjoyment, but to save the court's factories.

If the imperial court is willing to pay to save these factories, why should they try to save money? The imperial court is forcing good people to become thieves. If the factories of the imperial minister can be saved, why can't the factories in their area be saved? Even if the son is born to a concubine, he is still a son. The imperial court's discrimination is too obvious.

There were too many local officials who had such ideas, but the Han court was simply unable to save them. This kind of thing was too common, and the Han officials were unwilling to learn lessons, so the Han court could only teach them a lesson itself. At this time, the local Han officials complained that the court did not help them. This was a closed loop and it made no sense at all.

So much so that Xu Aimin felt that the nine ministries of the imperial court should be directly managed vertically by the local governments in order to minimize the influence of the local governments on the industrial layout of the imperial court.

Chen Rui thought for a moment and said, "This matter cannot be decided by your Majesty and me alone."

He himself had been a provincial governor, so he naturally understood the thoughts of the local governors. His Majesty felt that the governors had too much power. But the governors felt that the court was too controlling and restricted their freedom of movement.

How could a county governor be as helpless as them? They had to run to the court to run projects at any time, and they had to please even the Han officials. Even in the local area, they could not let go of their governance. The court guarded against them like thieves. This fund was set, and it had to be used for its intended purpose. That allocation had to be checked regularly. Every year, they had to report to the court, and the accounting officials would track and check. The court even wanted the county sages to supervise them. The various systems formulated by the court tied them up like a big net. The Han governors also felt that they had a lot of mother-in-laws to deal with.

Now we have to add another net to the local governors. Chen Rui knows that if such a reform is not handled well, even he will not be able to withstand the backlash.

Xu Aimin said, "I will inform my senior brother first. During this period, my senior brother will gather the nine ministers to formulate a good implementation system." Chen Rui nodded and said, "Yes!"

After leaving the meeting room, Chen Rui smiled bitterly and said to himself: "It is becoming increasingly difficult to be the prime minister of the Han Dynasty."

But he quickly dispelled his inner discontent and said, "But if the reform is successful, I, the prime minister, may be remembered in history."

The Han Dynasty was founded for more than 40 years, and there were four prime ministers, not counting him. Prime Minister Zhou Zhang, as the founding prime minister, will surely go down in history, but his successors Xiao He and Ye Teng did not make any groundbreaking initiatives and could only be regarded as peaceful prime ministers.

On the contrary, it was Zhou Bo who implemented many reform measures for the Han Dynasty as prime minister. His prestige was comparable to that of Prime Minister Zhou Zhang. The 10 years when he served as prime minister were also the 10 years when the prime minister of the Han Dynasty had the greatest power. No Han official could resist Zhou Bo's power.

Li Shang had the lowest prestige among the four prime ministers of the Han Dynasty. Of course, this was also related to the peace and tranquility of the Han Dynasty in the past 10 years. It was always difficult for a prime minister to achieve results in a peaceful era. Of course, he had a good reputation among farmers, because the policy of tax reduction for farmers was also fully implemented within his 10-year term. It was a pity that the initiator of this reform was still Zhou Bo, and Zhou Bo would account for the main credit in future historical records.

In the future, the history of Li Shang's political achievements will probably not include as many chapters as the chapters recording his conflicts with the emperor. If he succeeds in this reform, his prestige will naturally be high. After accumulating prestige, it will be easier for him to promote various policies and reforms.

Chen Rui didn't have to choose between being a peaceful prime minister like Li Shang or a reformist prime minister like Zhou Bo.

So after Chen Rui took over as the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, he did not tour the local areas like other prime ministers, but instead constantly convened the nine ministers of the Han Dynasty to discuss matters. However, what these high-level officials were discussing was not revealed at all.

June 40, 12rd year of the Han calendar.

Chang'an City, the headquarters of Mohism.

Xu Fan was sitting high on the stage, with the great man Fang Hao, the steward Chen Lei, Xiong Ju, Tian Yang, Ai Qiang, and Li Kai also sitting beside him. Below the stage were the leaders of the Mohist School from the sixty counties of the Han Dynasty.

The leaders of the Mohist School were surprised by this gathering. Such high-level gatherings rarely occurred in the Mohist School. Not to mention that the emperor rarely came to the Mohist School headquarters after his retirement. The leaders were all whispering about what happened, but they exchanged intelligence with each other and got nothing.

"Ahem!" Xu Fan coughed and raised the book in his hand and said, "This is the report of the new Chen County Magistrate of the Han Dynasty on his investigation in Chen County. You can take a look first."

Then several young Mohists appeared and presented books to these Mohist leaders, and they saw the 20-year investigation report on the Chenjun government-run reform.

The report in their hands was an enhanced version. Xu Fan used his superiors to collect statistics on private factories in Guanzhong, Shaofu factories, and collective factories controlled by the Mohists. Basically, every industry was compared among these three different factories, and there were comparisons of steel and machinery in heavy industry, and ready-made clothes and cloth in light industry.

The above record of overstaffing in the factory made the Mohist leaders frown, because such things happened to all Mohist collective factories to a greater or lesser extent, and there were even more such things as personal connections, but no one thought there was anything wrong with it.

Although the Han Dynasty had been developing for 40 years and the new generation had begun to gradually take over all walks of life in the Han Dynasty, the people in power in the Han Dynasty still experienced the Warring States Period and the late Qin Dynasty. Their values ​​and thinking were still largely influenced by the Warring States Period.

To give others clothes and to give others food is, in their opinion, the noblest virtue in the world and one of the ideals they have always pursued. As for the craftsmen, if you treat me as a national hero, I will repay you as a national hero.

Therefore, in the factories controlled by the Mohists, the father is the master craftsman, the son is the artisan, the wife and daughter-in-law manage some logistical affairs of the factory, and the grandchildren go to the factory's nursery and elementary school, and naturally join the factory when they grow up.

Of course, those with extraordinary talents may leave this system and become Han officials or military officers, or be admitted to universities. But even among those who are admitted to universities, a large number of them will return to this system.

Shaofu factory, collective factory, craftsmen regard the factory as home, this has always been their Mohist propaganda, and they have always done so. The factory naturally has to take good care of the craftsmen's family and solve their worries.

I will support your wife and children. This is not just a joke on the Internet in later generations, but a serious and solemn promise.

It was precisely because of the consistent concept of treating the factory as home that the master craftsmen of the Mohist Collective Factory could give up salaries that were several times or even dozens of times higher than those outside and stay in the factory.

The income of craftsmen in the Shaofu factory and the Mohist collective factory was generally 50% to 100% higher than that of people in the same industry. These craftsmen not only received pensions from the court, but also pensions, education, medical care, housing and various welfare benefits provided by the factory. A factory could take care of all matters of a worker from birth to death.

In the eyes of the Mohists, they relied on this system to make the craftsmen return to their hearts and regard the factory as their home. They maintained the efficiency of the Mohist collective factory. Of course, they also acknowledged the shortcomings of the Mohist factory. The above-mentioned things were not fabricated, but more or less happened in Mohist factories.

But there is no perfect system in this world. Private factories are indeed somewhat efficient, but they have to drive the workers like cattle and horses, and run the factories within the bottom line of Han law. They try to keep the salaries as low as possible, and if the working hours can be increased by a quarter of an hour, they will never waste half an hour.

The gifts for various festivals are often filled with mooncakes and steamed buns that are so expensive that they can kill people. Yes, the workers are deceived and lied to them whenever possible. The craftsmen have no sense of belonging to such a factory and they do their work perfunctorily every day.

In particular, a new pie-in-the-sky model has recently emerged in Chang'an City. In order to increase the enthusiasm of craftsmen, the newly opened factories in the Han Dynasty in recent years will give these craftsmen more or less shares, claiming that everyone is a shareholder of the factory. However, these profiteers will set strict conditions for obtaining shares. If the craftsmen are not careful, the so-called shares will be lost.

Moreover, these unscrupulous businessmen also set repurchase conditions that were extremely favorable to themselves. In order to hide these terms, they wrote the contract like a travel novel, so that the craftsmen had no patience to read the terms clearly.

This fraudulent pattern has occurred dozens of times in Mohism. The earliest contract was signed three years ago, and many craftsmen have been deceived, even with the support of Mohism. This lawsuit is difficult to win.

The Mohists could only publicize this model and remind craftsmen to be careful of the traps set by these unscrupulous businessmen. If they wanted a salary, they should not take any shares. If they wanted shares, they should also carefully understand the repurchase conditions, penalty conditions, etc.

However, this model of harshly exploiting craftsmen will only make Mohists sneer at them. They treat craftsmen like beasts of burden. The craftsmen have no initiative at all, and the factories have no technological content. Such factories are either on the road to bankruptcy or are already going bankrupt.

This kind of factory can't even do work that requires a bit of technical skills. Research and development innovation is even more unrealistic.

Take Brothers Textile Factory as an example. In recent years, its market share has been squeezed by private textile and garment factories.

However, Brothers Garment Factory continued to develop new fabrics, various new jacquard machines, dyes, and high-end fabrics. The high-end fabric market in Dahan was almost monopolized by Brothers Textile Factory, and the profit of this textile factory was equal to the profit of hundreds of textile factories.

(End of this chapter)