People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 201 Shackles
The biggest change from military governance to the development of a country was that the Yellow Turbans began to loosen their control over the local areas. The original garrison chiefs and squad leaders were completely separated from the army, and began to serve as independent village heads, township heads, and county magistrates. From then on, they were only responsible to the Xuanxia central court and had nothing to do with the army.

Relatively speaking, the army no longer has to interfere in local affairs. Even conscription matters are handled by each township and county independently. The army has only one responsibility, which is to defend the country and fight.

The size of the Yellow Turbans' army was ultimately controlled to only 10,000 regular professional infantrymen. As for the cavalry, they were registered as reserve military households to reduce their burden.

Whether in the past or now, military affairs have always been the top priority for the Yellow Turbans, the only difference is the degree.

Ten thousand standing professional troops can be maintained by the strength of Youzhou alone, so it won't be too much of a strain. And maintaining this scale will be more than enough to handle small-scale battles unless there is a decisive battle with the outside world.

At least Xu Chen and Wang Dang are confident that the combat effectiveness of the Yellow Turbans is at least three times that of the current officers and soldiers.

Moreover, this combat effectiveness effect will be further amplified as the size of the army grows. Otherwise, in the previous battles with Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan, the Yellow Turbans would not have been able to achieve a great victory with their weak force. This was all the result of being fed with money and food.

In general, the Yellow Turbans now control more resources than before, but the scale of their military is not much different from before, which actually dilutes the military investment. More resources can be considered to be allocated to people's livelihood construction.

"I heard that you moved your family to Youzhou." In the Ji County government office, Xu Chen casually asked Ju Su while handling official business.

Ju Su said calmly: "Since I have joined the Yellow Turbans, I will naturally devote myself to them. I moved my family to Youzhou because I don't want to have any worries in the future."

Xu Chen glanced at him with a meaningful look in his eyes: "But the Ju family is a big family with great wealth. It seems that not many of the clansmen were brought by you. Most of them still stayed in Jizhou."

Ju Su looked calm: "It is normal for the nobles to have many branches and leaves. Most of those who migrated this time are my close relatives, and they have clean experiences and will not be punished. As long as this branch continues in Youzhou, I won't care about the rest of my subordinates. They just have different fates."

Xu Chen nodded upon hearing this, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, the scholars of this era are actually very conscious, the more chaotic the times, the more they bet everywhere.

The famous surnames of the Three Kingdoms can often be found in various forces. They are closely related to each other, but they have each taken a different path.

This is not a bad thing, but rather a way of diversifying investments. No matter which side wins in the end, there will always be one side that will grow stronger.

Ju Shou is just doing the same thing today, and Xuan Xia is the bet made by Ju Shou.

Xu Chen was not disgusted by this. He had to give people a way to survive, and Ju Shou was just the beginning. The stronger Xuan Xia became, more and more people would start to invest in the future. Ju Shou was just a pioneer among the gentry.

"Xuanxia is currently building industrial and commercial and labor laws. Once they are perfected, they will gradually open up industrial and commercial operations. That's when businessmen will come into play. If you and your clansmen can seize this opportunity, even if you can't continue to maintain the status of a noble family, it's not impossible to become a business family. To some extent, this may not be less respectable than a noble family."

After Xu Chen finished speaking, he turned his gaze to what he was looking at in front of him, which was the industrial and commercial laws and labor laws he was talking about now.

As his secretary, Ju Shou naturally made many suggestions. The elite of the old scholars were definitely not unfamiliar with such matters and could often provide many good ideas.

At this time, Ju Shou moved in with his family, and Xu Chen knew what was going on just by thinking about it.

Policy information itself is of great value. Ju Shou knew this kind of information from his own side, so of course he would consider using the policy to plan his own development. It was only natural for him to move his family in early to get the first share of the industrial and commercial development.

Although his lord saw through his thoughts, Ju Su was not panicked, and he himself had no intention of hiding anything.

After being together for such a long time, he has gotten to know the temperament of his lord Xu Chen. Although this lord hates evil, he is very tolerant of things within the rules. He knows that his lord does not care about such things, so there is naturally no need to cover up.

"Now that the labor law has been initially established, the protection of laborers by the lord is rare in the world, but I am still confused. This law is good, but it is a shackle for merchants. The lord clearly wants to promote the prosperity of industry and commerce, but he has imposed many restrictions on merchants. Isn't this contradictory?"

Since the topic has come to this, Ju Shou pondered for a moment and couldn't help but raise the question that he had always had.

Hearing Ju Shou's words, Xu Chen paused, then looked back at Ju Shou, frowned slightly, but then regained his composure: "This is not good for the workers, it's just to protect their basic rights. This is not decided by you and me, but by the teachings."

Ju Su quickly bowed and said, "I understand."

Xu Chen was silent for a moment, then couldn't help but sigh in his heart and started to complain.

Human hearts are really hard to control. Ju Shou had just accepted the businessman's perspective, and immediately began to feel uncomfortable with the labor laws. It can only be said that most people in the world let their butts determine their heads, and this is the eternal truth.

"Even if we don't talk about the teachings, who will ultimately consume the products produced by merchants?" Xu Chen said again.

Ju Su said, "Of course it is the people who consume it." Xu Chen said, "If the people have no money to consume, what will happen to the merchants' products?"

Ju Su was about to speak, but was suddenly speechless. He suddenly remembered what was said in "Guan Zi". According to Guan Zhong's economic theory, the extravagant consumption of the rich is an important factor in driving production. Therefore, the rich would rather eat eggs with carvings on them. Similarly, only by building more palaces can jobs be created for the lower-class people.

Xu Chen also mentioned this point: "Guan Zhong knew that consumption can drive production. From a macro perspective, the people are the main consumers. If the people have no money, who will consume the goods produced by merchants?"

Ju Su suddenly realized: "I understand. Therefore, we must provide workers with adequate protection and allow them to receive adequate compensation so that they can have money to spend and achieve positive development."

Xu Chen stared at Ju Su for a while, and finally just nodded.

Does Ju Shou really not understand these things? Xu Chen thinks that he must understand them, but it is meaningless to Ju Shou.

As for specific businessmen, they don’t care whether the macro-economy can develop healthily. They only care about getting more profits with less costs. Even if they know these principles, they will only find labor and business laws annoying.

Workers' working hours must comply with legal regulations, workers' minimum wages must meet legal regulations, and there are also a series of protection laws regarding work-related injuries, etc. Each of these is a shackle for businessmen.

Industrial and commercial laws also stipulate many things related to merchants' product standards, business practices, and commercial tax payments, which also make merchants feel uncomfortable.

The level of detail of these laws was so great that even Ju Shou was astonished. To match this, Xuanxia also had corresponding functional departments embedded in the administrative system to truly implement these things.

Although Ju Shou couldn't say that he fully understood what Xu Chen was thinking, he could vaguely feel something.

Even if there are no more powerful aristocrats in this world, a new class will begin to emerge. What this class will be? This may depend on what Xu Chen has prepared.

Judging from the things that are like shackles to businessmen today, this emerging class may be the merchant class.

Is it possible for businessmen, who are not visible on the stage, to come to the fore and become a new interest group?
It was actually a little hard for Ju Shou to imagine, because businessmen were so low-class, or to put it bluntly, they were despised by people. But from Xu Chen's reaction, he felt that Xu Chen seemed to be certain that businessmen would be the next interest group, otherwise he would not have prepared shackles for them so early.

This judgment actually made Ju Shou feel relieved. Xu Chen had extremely high accuracy in long-term foresight, which Ju Shou could not deny.

If this is the case, there is some hope for the continuation of his family. At least the transition from a noble family to a businessman will not be too far off.

Ju Su couldn't help but start thinking about the future development direction of his family. After the corresponding laws were perfected and promulgated, Xuan Xia would no longer control the industry and commerce. After the plate became bigger, the court could not afford to run such a big business.

In addition to basic industries such as coal, iron and salt, the remaining sub-industries must utilize the power of private businessmen, which will be more conducive to the further prosperity of the industrial and commercial market.

The imperial court strongly supports the development of industry and commerce. As long as one can seize this opportunity, one's family will have no worries about profits.

While Ju Shou was pondering, Xu Chen was also staring at him silently, as if he could already see the future of Ju's becoming a business giant.

This has nothing to do with whether Ju Shou is his secretary or not, but with the development of the times, even if the Ju family is gone, other businessmen will rise up.

If you destroy the monster of the aristocratic class, you will eventually release another monster called capital, but you can always put shackles on the latter and try to tame it.

Unconsciously, Xu Chen's eyes became a little colder.

It would be great if I could tame this monster, but if it refuses to be tamed, I don't mind killing it.

We may not be able to end the conflict, but if we can eliminate the object of the conflict, that is not impossible.

Xu Chen said: "Please."

Ju Su turned his head and said, "My lord, please speak."

Xu Chen's tone began to become meaningful: "Remember to keep an eye on your relatives. Xuanxia is different from the Han people after all. You need to let them know the rules here. Don't do things that you shouldn't do, otherwise things will end badly."

Ju Su was stunned when he heard this, and seemed to understand the deep meaning of the words. He couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart: "I understand!"

(End of this chapter)