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

Chapter 666: Rural Illness and the Tianzhu Crisis
Gongsun Hong smiled and said, "I have the same opinion. In recent years, I have brought villagers to build workshops and made a lot of money. With the generous dividends from the agricultural cooperative, the villagers are generally wealthy, but these poor villagers have suddenly become rich. The older generation is fine, they can keep this wealth and live a stable life, but the young people generally don't know the hard days before the founding of the Han Dynasty, and don't know the hard work of making money. The money in their hands is easily cheated away by gangsters and rangers through gambling, and then they fall back into poverty. This has become one of the stubborn problems in the Han villages."

Zhao Yu nodded and said, "Rogues and knights corrupt the morals of the village and tempt villagers to gain something for nothing. They are indeed one of the stubborn problems of the Han Dynasty. The court should crack down on them and exile all the knights and knights in the Han villages to Nanzhou and Yanzhou continents to explore the new land."

Then Zhao Yu told Gongsun Hong about the problems he had discovered in Dahan Village over the past few years. The overall trend of the changes in Dahan Village over the past 30 years is that the people in the villages are getting richer and richer.

Especially in the Jiangnan area, a large number of Baiyue people came down from the mountains, received fiefdoms, and under the leadership of Han officials and agricultural scholars, they opened fields, repaired canals, established towns, and built roads. After decades of development by the Han Dynasty, the Jiangnan area had become a land of fish and rice, and the Baiyue people were becoming more and more indistinguishable from the Han people.

But this does not mean that the countryside of the Han Dynasty is a paradise without any problems. On the contrary, based on Zhao Yu's experience over the past 30 years, the cities of the Han Dynasty have developed faster, and the conflicts in the cities have been dispersed by the rapid development. On the contrary, the countryside has not developed as well as the cities, and the conflicts in the cities have shifted to the countryside of the Han Dynasty. In addition, the power of the imperial court is weakest in the countryside, so there are more problems in the countryside.

The first problem is the problem of brain drain. A large number of talents in rural areas yearn for a better life, and they generally want to stay in cities. However, nowadays, people in rural areas encourage their children to study hard, get admitted to universities, and develop in big cities. Even if they fail to get admitted, they will go to cities to work. During the decades of rapid development of China, the urban population has increased significantly, while the rural population has not increased much.

But the Han Dynasty's rural areas also needed talents to drive development. Such population movement meant that the cities were sucking the blood of the countryside. If it weren't for the fact that the Han Dynasty had farmers and policies to take care of the Han officials in the countryside, as well as the court's low taxes on the countryside, the gap between the Han Dynasty's rural areas and cities would not have been widened so much.

The second problem is that the infrastructure and spiritual life in rural areas are far inferior to those in cities. In the cities of the Han Dynasty, there are schools, clinics, theaters, restaurants, taverns, and all kinds of service facilities to serve the people of the Han Dynasty. However, in the rural areas of the Han Dynasty, there are few such facilities, and at most there are some markets. This leads to the spiritual life in rural areas being far inferior to that in cities.

The third problem is the gambling problem caused by the rangers and gangsters. Although the Han Dynasty cracked down on the rangers and gangsters with force, they could not kill all of them. Many of them were even kept in captivity by Han officials just to make it easier for the rangers to help them do things that they could not do.

As long as a place breeds a large number of vagrants and gangsters, they will instinctively oppress the people, and gambling is the most common means.

This is also related to the second question, that is, because the spiritual life in the countryside is poor, various gambling activities have occupied the spiritual life of the villagers. There are many teahouses in the countryside, which seem to be more formal places, but in fact they are a kind of gambling place. Various cockfighting, dog fighting and other activities are generally carried out here, and the countryside can also use local materials.

There are various types of gambling, big and small, and some are just for entertainment, and you only win or lose a few dozen dollars a day.

But some people who have poor self-control will lose all their property. Zhao Yu encounters dozens of such cases every year, among which there are many cases of families being broken up and people dying. Some people hang themselves because they lose too much, some are caught and tortured by these casino gamblers, and some simply flee for their lives.

Gongsun Hong said happily: "Brother Zhao, how about we exchange experiences and write an article about this Han village?"

Zhao Yu thought about it and said, "Okay!"

In this way, under the leadership of Gongsun Hong, Zhao Yu also started to get busy. Every day he either went to the library to look up information or wrote articles. His life became more fulfilling.

April 51, the 4st year of the Han calendar, Chang'an City, Government College.

There were no classes at the Government Affairs College that day. Instead, all students were arranged to clean the college. There were many unfamiliar soldiers in the college, and security was tightened several times.

Gongsun Hong and Zhao Yu were also assigned to the same corridor.

Gongsun Hong held a rag and said mysteriously, "Brother Zhao, do you know why the academy is kept clean only by the people who clean it?"

Zhao Yu wiped the rubbish and said calmly, "Of course, an important person is coming to our academy. The students here are all officials of the Han Dynasty, and there are even two thousand stone officials. To be so important, it must be that the prime minister is coming to our academy, or the emperor is coming. I'm afraid that ordinary nine ministers would not be given such attention by the academy."

Gongsun Hong said: "Brother Zhao, you can see Wanli clearly, which means the emperor is coming."

Zhao Yu understood and said, "No wonder you have been speeding up the progress of the article these days. It seems that you want to present it to the emperor."

Gongsun Hong said: "We are too old to afford any more time, so we must seize every opportunity. If my article is appreciated by the emperor, it will help me advance my career by twenty years."

He was also aware of Zhao Yu's indifferent attitude towards learning. Zhao Yu was fourteen years older than him, and the county magistrate was his upper limit. But he was different. He still had 20 years to work hard. Of course, he was 20 years behind other Han officials, so he had to seize every opportunity.

Zhao Yu sighed and said, "The court has repeatedly ordered local governments not to engage in too much formalism and not to waste too much time and energy on welcoming guests. However, our school is the place closest to the emperor, but it is still like this!"

Gongsun Hong smiled and said, "Brother, you have been in the countryside for a long time. You can only do more of this kind of thing, not less. If you do more, the emperor will blame you, but it is just a blame. But if you don't do it, the emperor will think that our school does not value it, causing dissatisfaction, and it is hard to say what will happen."

In this regard, his experience is much better than Zhao Yu. Although Gongsun Hong also works in the countryside, his agricultural society is a high-level agricultural society, which is considered a signboard of Hebei agricultural society. There are too many county magistrates and county governors who go to his agricultural society. Even the Minister of Agriculture and the fake prime minister have been to his agricultural society. Naturally, every reception is very tiring, but he can get funding from the court every time, so he is willing to do it even if it is tiring. It is because Gongsun Hong is good at networking that his high-level agricultural society has obtained more resources and developed better, which gave him the opportunity to become an outstanding representative this time.

Zhao Yu looked at Xiahou Zao's portrait and said, "I would like to be like him and do only one thing in my life. That one thing is enough to be recorded in history forever."

The Han Dynasty has been vigorously promoting the spirit of Xiahou Zao since the beginning of the plan, and the School of Public Administration has naturally followed suit. Not only did they hold a memorial service in the school, but they also immediately hung up a portrait of Xiahou Zao, with his deeds recorded under the portrait. Xiahou Zao has become an outstanding comrade in the Han Dynasty's construction of a world of great harmony and a benchmark.

The Han Dynasty took outstanding Han officials as their role models. Primary and middle schools were filled with portraits of sages from various schools of thought. In schools, they would also hang portraits of some of their own students. In the government affairs school, there were not only portraits of Xiahou Zao, but also portraits of Ye Teng, Cao Shen, Xiao He and other outstanding Han officials, so that the achievements of these people would be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Gongsun Hong looked at Xiahou Zao with envy and said, "It's not easy to be remembered in history and to keep the family rich for a hundred years. I wonder if I can hang my portrait here like the Marquis of Ruyin one day."

The Han Dynasty court has always treated meritorious officials well. Xiahou Ying only had the title of viscount because he did not make much contribution to the founding of the Han Dynasty. But now Xiahou Zao was granted the title of marquis by the court. For him, Xiahou Zao was a role model in life. He made great achievements during his lifetime and was posthumously granted the title of marquis by the court after his death. Both of his two ideals in life were realized by Xiahou Zao.

The only flaw might be that it was done at the cost of his life. Although there was no shortage of people in the Han Dynasty who were willing to sacrifice their lives for titles, Gongsun Hong still valued his life very much.

The next day, Liu Chang drove a carriage into the Government College, where hundreds of teachers and thousands of students lined up to welcome him.

"Long live the emperor!" Xu Aimin got off the carriage and said with a smile, "No need to be polite."

Then another person got off the carriage. He was the third brother of the current emperor, King Xu Aijun of India.

Seeing the students of the academy, Xu Aijun flattered them, "Brother, the talents under your command are as numerous as the stars in the sky. If our Tianzhu country had so many talents, why would it be in such a predicament now?"

When Xu Aimin heard this, a smile appeared on his face and he walked towards the largest classroom in the School of Public Administration.

Xu Aijun also followed. He came to the Han Dynasty to ask for help from his brother because an economic crisis broke out in Tianzhu and he desperately needed the support of the Han Dynasty.

Starting from the time Hu Hai discovered India, the Han Dynasty ruled India for more than 30 years. During these 30 years, India experienced the collapse of the slave society, the development of India by Han nobles and merchants such as Fei Hai Money House, and the establishment of an industrial society.

The status of the merchants and powerful people in India was higher than that of the Han Dynasty. To some extent, India had a higher level of capital than the Han Dynasty. At least in India, they were no longer fat pigs, but had evolved into wealthy wolves, tigers and leopards, and were a class that was qualified to share pork. Their political status was much higher than that of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, the wealthy merchants in the Han Dynasty also liked to transfer their property to India.

After all, the Han Dynasty was very unfriendly to merchants and powerful forces. When craftsmen wanted pensions, they asked them for money. When the imperial court wanted to develop the south of the Yangtze River, it asked them for money. When the Han Dynasty encountered an economic crisis, it still plundered them to survive the crisis.

Now in the Han Dynasty, except for small rural workshops, the tax rate for factories of a certain size is already 3-4%, and larger factories may be run by the imperial court. Most of the money they earn is taken away by the imperial court and craftsmen. However, their political status in the Han Dynasty court is not as good as that of the nobles, and they are even worse than that of craftsmen and farmers. How can those factory owners be willing to accept this? It can be said that they have never escaped the status of cattle and sheep in the Han Dynasty.

India became a perfect country in the eyes of Han merchants. India would protect their interests, and the people of India were accustomed to the hierarchy. They would not go on strike, nor would they want serfs to become masters. There would be no Mohists causing trouble for them. The King of India warmly welcomed them to invest in India and attached great importance to protecting their interests.

Now Tianzhu treats the Han Dynasty like Niu Niu treated Hope Country in later generations. It has become a destination for investment for the Han Dynasty. Relying on the massive capital investment from these Han merchants, Tianzhu has developed very rapidly in the past 17 years. Especially after Xu Aijun became the King of Tianzhu, Tianzhu had a backbone, the monopoly of Tianzhu Trading Company was broken, the King of Tianzhu also guaranteed the interests of merchants in Tianzhu, and a large number of small and medium-sized merchants invested in Tianzhu. As a result, Tianzhu entered a golden period of development for years.

During these seventeen years, the cotton fields in Tianzhu expanded eightfold, making Tianzhu cotton one of the most important textile raw materials in the Han Dynasty. At the same time, Xu Aijun's behavior of protecting merchants and attracting investment also attracted a large number of merchants to invest in and build textile factories in Tianzhu. Tianzhu's cotton textile industry increased more than 8 times. In the cotton industry, Tianzhu was not only self-sufficient, but could even export to Southeast Asia and South Central China.

At the same time, under the leadership of Xu Aijun, the scale of railways in Tianzhu is the largest in the world except for the Han Dynasty, with a length of more than 30,000 miles. The construction of these infrastructures has driven the development of various industries in Tianzhu. The silk industry, tea industry, spice industry and other cash crop industries in Tianzhu have all benefited from the convenience brought by the railways and entered a period of rapid development, rapidly accumulating wealth for Tianzhu.
Now the annual fiscal revenue of India is as high as 300 billion coins, second only to the Han Dynasty among all the countries in the world. During the 17 years that Xu Aijun has been the King of India, the speed of India's development is not inferior to that of the Han Dynasty. It is a wonderful golden period of development.

But such development is not without hidden worries. In order to attract investment, Xu Aijun did not impose as strict restrictions on merchants as the Han Dynasty. At the same time, before Xu Aijun came, the nobles and powerful people of the Han Dynasty had already occupied a large amount of land profits in Tianzhu. This made it difficult for Xu Aijun to shake these nobles and powerful people of the Han Dynasty after he became the king of Tianzhu.

Because Xu Aijun, the King of India, was an outsider, he and the nobles and powerful people of the Han Dynasty were compatriots. When he protected the interests of these nobles and powerful people, he was protecting his own interests. To put it politically incorrectly, his King of India shared the world with the nobles and powerful people of the Han Dynasty, not with the people of India.

Xu Aijun was also very clear about this point, so after he became the King of India, he also attached great importance to protecting the interests of the nobles and powerful people of the Han Dynasty.

By doing this he was able to quickly take root in India, but the downside was that the greed and ugliness of capitalism were fully displayed in India. The salaries of Indian craftsmen and female workers were extremely low, only one-tenth of those of Han craftsmen and female workers. As for pensions, industrial and commercial insurance and other welfare benefits, they had none of them. Even though the salaries of female craftsmen and workers were so low, the factory owners were not satisfied and they even hired a large number of child laborers to reduce costs.

This is also why India's textile industry, which has only been developed for less than 20 years, has not only been able to repel the Han Dynasty's textile industry, but has also begun to seize the markets in Southeast Asia and South China. This is because the Han Dynasty's welfare factories cannot compete with India's sweatshops. In other words, the people of India still have the way to work in the Han Dynasty, so the factory owners of India did not become factories that devour human lives and flesh like Niu Niu.

But the backlash of capital came quickly. India could buy machines from Han, and the textile industry soon became saturated. To make matters worse, the rapidly developing railway industry also encountered problems. India's industry was far inferior to that of Han, and industrial products such as rails, pig iron, and locomotives had to be imported from Han.

India is in a trade surplus position every year. Even with the foreign exchange income from the investment and labor of Han merchants, India's current rapid development is essentially caused by the debt caused by the construction of railways, which is equivalent to borrowing money for development in the next few decades.

Therefore, the stock market in Tianzhu was extremely prosperous. But last year, the Han Dynasty attacked the stock market in Jiang State, causing a large number of investors to start worrying about the debt of Tianzhu Railway Company. Some people planned to withdraw from the Tianzhu stock market while they were ahead. This triggered Black Monday, the collapse of the Tianzhu stock market. With the outbreak of the crisis, a large number of money houses, financial companies and industrial enterprises in Tianzhu went bankrupt. Nearly a thousand factories went bankrupt last year alone.

And most importantly, this crisis exposed the debt problem of the Tianzhu Railway Company. Tianzhu has built 20 miles of railways in the past 3 years, spending hundreds of billions of yuan. The debt of the Tianzhu Railway Company alone exceeds 500 billion yuan, while the railway company's revenue is only more than 50 billion yuan, and the profit is less than 10 billion yuan. This is not enough to repay the debt, let alone pay the interest. In the past, the Tianzhu Railway Corporation could borrow new debts to repay old debts, but now that the economic crisis has broken out, the game of covering ten bottles with five lids can no longer be played.

The Tianzhu Railway Company would have collapsed if Xu Aijun had not rescued it. However, even if Xu Aijun was the King of Tianzhu, he would not be able to repay the 500 billion yuan debt. Xu Aijun had no choice but to come to Dahan and ask his brother for help.

The Han Dynasty was also aware of the economic crisis in India. Ordinary people might not pay attention to what was happening in India, but the students at the Han Dynasty's School of Government were very concerned about it.

After all, every economic crisis is an important example for the students of the Han Dynasty and is very worthy of study. After all, the Legalists became the prominent school of the Han Dynasty because of their ability to fight against economic crises. Regardless of whether other philosophers are happy, the Legalists have become more and more important in the court of the Han Dynasty today.

School of Public Administration classroom.

Emperor Xu Aimin and King Xu Aijun of India sat at the top, while the teachers and students of the Government Affairs Academy sat below.

Xu Aimin cleared his throat and said, "I came to the academy today to visit you and to test you. I think you should know about the economic crisis in Tianzhu. You are the elites of the Han Dynasty. What do you think the King of Tianzhu should do about this crisis?"

All the students present fell into deep thought. If they answered this question well, they would leave a good impression on the emperor, but if they answered it poorly, it might also affect their future prospects, which made them have to take it seriously.

After a while, Xu Aimin saw a young Han official who was hesitant to speak and said with a smile: "Young student, what is your name?"

The young Han official bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I, Dong Zhongshu, pay my respects to you."

Xu Aimin said, "Tell me what you think."

Dong Zhongshu calmed down his excitement and said: "Tianzhu practices Huang-Lao's teachings and governs by inaction. Although the economy is developing rapidly, there are many hidden worries. In essence, governing by inaction is to allow the nobles and powerful to oppress the people. The nobles and powerful will use their power to bring great disasters and suffering to the people of Tianzhu. I heard that children under the age of ten in Tianzhu have to work to support themselves. Such a cruel thing, even King Zhou of Xia would not do it.

(End of this chapter)