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

Chapter 692: The pros and cons of globalization
June 55, 10th year of the Han calendar, Chang'an City.

High officials such as the Han county governor, sages from all over the country, and representatives of princes, all of whom were familiar with each other, gathered together and walked towards the venue of the Sages' Conference, talking and laughing.

Even though the economic data for the Han Dynasty this year has not been released, rumors have already spread throughout Chang'an City. It is known that the fiscal revenue of the Han Dynasty has increased by at least 30% this year. With such a high growth rate, this is the highest growth year for the Han Dynasty except for the first ten years after the founding of the country.

With the economic prosperity, everyone's mood naturally improved a lot. The court had an additional income of more than 600 billion, which could enable a lot of major projects. The county governors who came to the election meeting were eager to try and wanted to report more projects to gain benefits for their counties.

The square outside Zhangtai Palace.

"You Shu County people really dare to bring this up. You even want to make decisions on the Yangtze River. You want to follow the example of Li Bing and his son and become a god in Shu." Chen Mai laughed and teased Guan Hedao.

The Yangtze River Dam project caused a sensation in the entire Chang'an City. The total budget of this project exceeded 1000 billion, and the project period exceeded 10 years. It could be said to be the number one project. Many gossipers in Chang'an were discussing this project, and most people agreed that the prosperity of the Han Dynasty naturally had to have several matching projects. Cutting off the Yangtze River, something that the predecessors had never dared to think about, was suitable for them, the Han Dynasty, to do. However, no one in the Han Dynasty's top leadership agreed. The project was too expensive and the construction was too difficult. No one had much confidence. The Han Dynasty's top leaders, led by Prime Minister Chen Lei, believed that they should build more small dams to accumulate experience.

Guan He smiled and said, "Even if this idea doesn't work this year, it's good for the court to prepare early. In recent years, the court has vigorously promoted the motor industry, and coal-fired power generation is being built everywhere. However, the power generation efficiency of a Minjiang power station is that of 30 thermal power stations, and it doesn't need to burn coal. At the same time, the dam also takes into account irrigation and navigation and other economic advantages. It can be said that the dam is a one-time investment with a hundred-year return. Even if the construction cost is higher, it is worth the court's investment."

Chen Maizhen hit the nail on the head when it came to Guan He's inner thoughts. The Han Dynasty valued pragmatism in officialdom, and two generations of emperors promoted the idea of ​​governing the country with engineers. Under this idea, the status of Li Bing and his sons was raised to a very high level. They were deified by the Han Dynasty and enjoyed incense and sacrifices from the people of Shu every year.

Dujiangyan is a model project of the Han Dynasty. Before graduation, every batch of water conservancy students must visit Dujiangyan. One reason is to remember their ancestors, and the other is to learn the advanced water conservancy concepts of Li Bing and his son. You should know that Dujiangyan is the only water conservancy project that has been in operation for thousands of years and is still preserved, and its concepts are still not outdated today.

The third is to motivate myself to organize and build a water conservancy project like the Dujiangyan Irrigation System that will be passed down through the ages.

Guanhe saw this scene every year, and naturally wanted to leave a major project for Shu so that he could be deified after his death and his reputation would last forever.

Chen Mai was surprised and asked, "Is the efficiency of hydroelectric power generation so high?"

Guan He nodded and said, "A coal-fired power plant uses steam to drive the generator. A dam blocks the water from a river, creating a drop of several dozen meters. The endless water from the river drives the generator. The efficiency is naturally much higher than that of a coal-fired power plant, and no additional consumption is required. The only drawback of a dam is that it takes much longer and costs more to build than a coal-fired power plant."

Chen Mai said: "If building dams really has so many benefits, then the court should indeed formulate a development plan for building dams. The price of coal has risen too high and has begun to affect the price of goods in the Han Dynasty."

Chen Mai was a senior accountant and was more familiar with the economic data of the Han Dynasty. In the past two years, driven by electric motors and internal combustion engines, the Han Dynasty's economy had developed rapidly, but there was also a trend of economic overheating. First, the large-scale construction of coal-fired power stations consumed a large amount of cement, steel, bricks and other building materials. At the same time, the construction of each coal-fired power station was equivalent to adding another gold-eating beast that consumed coal.

The construction of a small power grid consumes a large amount of copper and a large amount of transformer equipment to maintain the power grid.

This caused the price of copper in Dahan to increase threefold, the price of coal to increase more than twofold, and cement, steel, and masonry to increase to varying degrees. Dahan's related industries have shifted from stabilizing prices to expanding production.

Among these, the coal industry has the greatest impact on all industries in the Han Dynasty. Coal is needed for steelmaking, power generation, and the operation of steam engines. Small and medium-sized boilers in rural areas of the Han Dynasty also need coal. Heating equipment in the north cannot do without coal, and people's daily lives cannot do without coal. Once the price of coal rises, it directly affects the prices of the entire Han Dynasty. If hydroelectric power stations can really reduce coal consumption, the court will definitely increase investment in this area.

Guan He took out a memorial and gave it to Chen Mai, saying, "In fact, you don't have to use honeycomb coal for cooking. Natural gas is better. It produces less smoke and dust, is less toxic, and is cheaper. The only problem is the high cost of laying pipelines. However, Zigong County has already laid a natural gas pipeline. The people of the county have completely gotten rid of the restrictions of coal and use natural gas for cooking."

In another timeline without Xu Fan, Shuzhong was also one of the salt producing areas of the Han Dynasty, and Zigong well salt was famous all over the world.

It’s a pity that Xu Fan developed the salt-drying technology 2000 years in advance. The price of salt in the Han Dynasty was driven to the lowest level in history, and it has hardly fluctuated since then.

In the first dozen years or so, due to transportation reasons, Zigong salt, Hedong salt and Henan salt were still able to grow on their own in the inland of the Han Dynasty. After the construction of the railway network of the Han Dynasty was completed, sea salt swept away all enemies like a landslide. Now the Hedong salt of the Han Dynasty can only talk about history and heritage, and barely occupy a small amount of the high-end market.

Zigong salt cannot even tell a history, but that's how things are in the world, good and bad are interdependent. Zigong could not sell salt, but local craftsmen accidentally hit natural gas when digging salt wells. At the beginning, the craftsmen used natural gas to boil brine to reduce costs.

Later, with the improvement of the Han Dynasty's industrial strength, blast furnaces were built larger and larger, and the price of steel became cheaper and cheaper. Local merchants used pipelines to connect natural gas to the county town for use in daily life. After decades of development among the people, natural gas in Zigong County has finally formed a natural gas pipeline throughout the city. Local people have gotten rid of the need for coal as an energy source.

After Guan He became the governor of Shu County, he learned about Zigong natural gas while inspecting the local area. He believed that natural gas had great potential for development and that laying Zigong natural gas pipelines to Chengdu would greatly reduce Chengdu's demand for coal. So this time he also led a project to build a Chengdu natural gas pipeline.

After reading it, Chen Mai smiled and said, "I'm afraid this is the project you want to report."

Compared to the Yangtze River Dam project, which cost hundreds of billions of dollars, the Chengdu natural gas pipeline project costs much less, only three billion dollars.”

Guan He smiled and said, "This is just a second choice. What I want to do more is the Yangtze River Dam."

And at this moment, a voice of shouting slogans came from far away.

"We want fairness!"

"We want to work, and the government must guarantee our right to work."

"Chang'an is the Chang'an of the Han Dynasty, and restrictions are imposed on migrant workers."

Then Chen Mai and his people were surprised to see a long dragon of demonstrators marching from Zhuque Street towards the square outside Zhangtai Palace, the venue of the Sages' Conference.

"What's going on? Brother Pijiang didn't arrange anyone to deal with such an emergency?" Guan He asked in surprise.

Soon, the demonstrators arrived at the outskirts of the square. A group of patrol guards were stationed outside the Zhangtai Palace and set up a cordon. However, the demonstrators did not cross the cordon. The people of Chang'an had rich experience in marches and demonstrations, and everyone knew where the boundaries were.

However, the county governor, wise representatives and princes' representatives of the Han Dynasty were all looking at the scene in surprise. The economy of the Han Dynasty has not developed very well in recent years, so how come there is such a large demonstrator?
Chen Mai suppressed his inner joy and said, "This is the harm brought by the balanced trade system. Too many foreign workers have taken over the jobs of ordinary people, which has caused dissatisfaction among the people of Chang'an."

In addition to being the Minister of the Imperial Household of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Pijiang was also the Minister of the Chancellery of the Global Alliance. People in the Han Dynasty jokingly said that Zhang Pijiang was the Prime Minister of the World.

Although this is a joke, it does have some truth to it. Zhang Pijiang really is in charge of global affairs.

The current global trade system was built by him. He helped countries around the world and the vassal states of the Han Dynasty to obtain loans to purchase Han Dynasty's machinery and various industrial products, thereby expanding the scale of Han Dynasty's exports.

At the same time, he also distributed the global industrial chain, absorbing more countries and lands to become the Han Dynasty's commodity markets and raw material production bases.

He also advocated increasing the number of workers, reducing the cost of infrastructure construction in the Han Dynasty, and balancing the trade systems between various countries and the Han Dynasty.

This system allows the Han Dynasty to control the upstream of the industrial chain while not causing a trade deficit that would drain the wealth of other countries and affect the promotion of globalization. Over the past three years since the system was put into operation, the Han Dynasty's fiscal revenue has skyrocketed year after year, and the Han Dynasty's vassal states around the world have also benefited from it by developing their own industries and cash crop planting. This system has been welcomed by all countries.

As the person who established this global trade system for the Han Dynasty, Zhang Pijiang has accumulated a lot of prestige. Although his rank is still at the minister level, the Han officials in the Han court have already regarded Zhang Pijiang as an official of the three highest levels. As for the princes of the Han Dynasty and the countries of Qinzhou, Zhang Pijiang can really decide the rise and fall of their countries with a single word. His prestige even exceeds that of the prime minister of the Han Dynasty.

But there is never anything perfect in the world. After the establishment of the Global Alliance, in order to balance trade, the Han Dynasty issued more than 300,000 labor permits every year, adding one million workers in three years.

These are all young and strong people in their prime years. Even if they are engaged in the lowest-end jobs, they have greatly impacted the job market in Dahan. In addition, industrial transformation has brought about drastic fluctuations in the job market.

There are too many craftsmen in the Han Dynasty whose interests have been damaged by the global industrial chain. They took advantage of this conference of sages to vent their anger in order to call for the court to pay attention to them.

Liu Heng looked at Deng Tongdao in surprise and asked, "You didn't inform the Prime Minister and Zhang Neishi about this demonstration?"

Deng Tong smiled bitterly and said, "My Lord, I don't know about this demonstration either."

Liu Heng said somewhat reproachfully, "You Mohists have become somewhat detached from the people in recent years."

Deng Tong was speechless.

Liu Heng also knew that Deng Tong could not be blamed for this. Over the past few decades, the court's attitude towards Mohism had changed frequently. During the reign of the retired emperor, it was believed that if Mohism remained among the people, it would be more beneficial to safeguarding the interests of craftsmen and communicating between the people and the court.

But in the era of the current emperor, it is believed that such large organizations as the Mohist School and the Agricultural School, which are traveling outside the Han court, may easily split the Han Dynasty and cause irreparable disaster.

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Therefore, the current emperor, the head of the Agricultural School, and the giant of the Mohist School have all become the Three Dukes of the Han Dynasty, and the Mohist School and the Agricultural School have also been incorporated into the Han officials and the Han Dynasty's career system.

Originally Liu Heng agreed with the emperor's approach, but now it seems that this approach has both advantages and disadvantages.

Zhang Pijiang appeared in front of the demonstration team and said, "Everyone can elect three representatives. If you have any opinions, you can tell me. I will try my best to meet them."

Three representatives were quickly sent out from the demonstration team and followed Zhang Pijiang to negotiate.

"How come there is another blond-haired and blue-eyed Qin man? How is he qualified to be a representative?" Gongsun Hong was a little surprised.

As a result, the representative heard this and said word by word in Chang'an Mandarin: "Listen carefully, you country bumpkin from Guandong. I grew up in Chang'an City and am a real Han Chinese."

Then Gongsun Hong left with a look of astonishment on his face.

Gongsun Hong and Zhao Yu have been busy promoting rural football leagues, culture and knowledge in rural areas in recent years. They promote the construction of a football field in each village, which means leveling a lawn so that farmers can have a place to play football. The cost is not high, and the main cost is the football field. The main income of the Han people does not rely on land, and the cost of land is almost free, so the promotion is also very smooth.

At the same time, libraries were built in rural primary schools. Every village in the Han Dynasty had a primary school, but the library depended on whether the village was wealthy. Gongsun Hong and Zhao Yu reported the school order and contacted local schools and middle schools to donate and help. More than 30 billion yuan was spent in three years to build thousands of libraries and deliver millions of books to the Han Dynasty's rural areas.

The two men attended this conference of sages as representatives of outstanding Han officials because of their outstanding political achievements.

Zhao Yu suppressed his smile and said, "Don't say such things in the future. There are more than 20 white people in Chang'an City. You will offend many people by saying this."

Compared with Gongsun Hong, an outsider, Zhao Yu spent his teenage years in Chang'an. He is a real Chang'an native and is more familiar with Chang'an. The Han Dynasty was not a country built on bloodline, but on cultural identity. In addition, the retired emperor was looking for blood brothers for the newborn Han people, and Chang'an was an international metropolis. This led to a large number of blond-haired and blue-eyed Han people in Chang'an, who mainly came from three aspects.

One is the integration of the Huns from the desert. When Maodun conquered the Dingling people, hundreds of thousands of blond-haired and blue-eyed Dingling people first became Huns and then became Han people. Even now, there are still a large number of Dingling people grazing in the North Sea, helping to maintain the Han Dynasty's rule on the ice field.

The Han Dynasty also had to pay 2 million yuan in materials and certain preferential treatment for school admissions every year. After all, as long as the Han Dynasty could feed these hundreds of thousands of Dingling people, it could obtain millions of square kilometers of land, which could be regarded as the most cost-effective deal in the world.

The second group was people from the Western Regions who poured into Chang'an from various countries in the Western Regions. These people first obtained household registration in the major vassal states of the Western Regions, and then entered the Han Dynasty again through trade, study, and labor. The time these people entered the Han Dynasty was almost the same as the time when the Han Dynasty was established. A large number of them had become natives of Guanzhong, and could speak Mandarin better than the Han people.

Finally, there are those who came from India and Qinzhou to study during the Age of Exploration. Those with superb skills and talents stayed in the Han Dynasty as master craftsmen, or worked as laborers. They worked diligently and obtained Han household registration and stayed there.

For various reasons, there are more than one million people of various races who have obtained Han household registration. However, Xu Fan has also learned the lessons of later generations and will not create a nation out of boredom. Instead, all these naturalized people are Han people in terms of identity.

This is also something that the naturalized people are happy about. They are also afraid that the Han Dynasty will establish a special household registration system and then persecute them. Daqinzhou has a lot of say in this regard.

Gongsun Hong looked at the crowd of protesters and said, "The people of Chang'an are too ignorant of the imperial court. They could have held a demonstration at any other time, but today. Isn't this a slap in the face of the imperial court?"

Zhao Yu looked strange and said, "These are all taught by the Emperor."

"Your Majesty! Don't dare to say anything nonsense." Gongsun Hong said in a low voice.

Zhao Yu said: "You have not studied in Chang'an, so you don't know the situation in Chang'an. The emperor likes to teach students very much, and he often has amazing words."

“It is difficult for an individual to fight against an organization, so we must unite and use the organization to fight the organization.

Don’t be part of the silent majority. Silence is equivalent to giving up your rights. If you give up your rights, no one will care about you. They may even take away the rights you gave up and oppress you. When faced with injustice, you must have the courage to speak out and fight against it.”

Gongsun Hong was shocked and said, "Isn't the Supreme Emperor teaching people to rebel?"

Zhao Yu: "It depends on how you look at it. The Emperor taught us to actively resist injustice, so marching and demonstrating in Chang'an City is a way for everyone to exercise their political rights and express their dissatisfaction. It is very common in Chang'an City and is not as serious as you think."

Among the Legalists, Zhidu said solemnly: "The court is too pampering the people of Chang'an. The people have lost their respect for the court and will sooner or later cause a catastrophic disaster."

During the three years that Zhidu served as the governor of Bingzhou, his prestige was unprecedented. To exaggerate a little, under his governance, no one picked up lost items on the streets and no one locked their doors at night. The stubborn problem of illegal coal mining in Bingzhou had not been properly addressed by the Han Dynasty for decades. When the crackdown was strict, the illegal coal mines were closed, and when the crackdown was lax, the illegal coal mines were reopened.

However, during the three years of Zhidu's rule, he cracked down on illegal mining, executed thousands of vagrants, and exiled 50,000 families of vagrants who were related to illegal kilns. For a time, all the counties in Bingzhou were terrified of coal mines, and even when the price of coal doubled, not many people dared to mine coal privately.

(End of this chapter)