warring states careerist

Chapter 649 The Road of Qi Country ([-])

As the Tian family on behalf of Qi, Tian He knows all kinds of means of the nobles.

Twenty years ago, he was not the king, but the biggest nobleman in Qi, so he was very clear about the little tricks of the nobleman.

He is not a farmer from the bottom who came to power in an uprising, so he may not know what the bottom wants, but he must know what the nobles want and oppose.

In order to encourage the nobles to develop industry and commerce, or to prevent the nobles from accumulating power like their families did back then, he also formulated the following policies.

One is the unification of weights and measures.

The Tian family started their business by relying on the inconsistency of weights and measures to attract the hearts of the people. In bad years, they used big buckets to lend money and small buckets to ask for repayment, so that they legally and rationally used the inconsistency of weights and measures, and took advantage of the loopholes to play a side-ball.

He didn't think of this point for the development of industry and commerce, he just thought of it based on his family's fortune history.

Of course, Tian He feels that this can also promote the development of Qi's industry and commerce, and help him collect taxes.

Secondly, it is to openly allow the nobles to start metal smelting and other industries, but it must be declared publicly, otherwise, once it is investigated and dealt with without declaring but secretly starting, it will be punished immediately and even cut off the fiefdom.

This industry is also a good thing for various nobles to make a fortune. When the Tian family made a fortune, they mined gold and copper.

Since this is what the nobles do, he might as well allow the nobles to do so, as long as they pay enough taxes.

Understaffed?The peasants in the fief are under the control of the nobles, you can do whatever you want.If the people's grievances are boiling, they can be used as an example to slow down the hatred of the people, and at the same time be called the king of benevolence and righteousness by the people.

Lack of technology?Industrial and commercial people are allowed to set up and support them. As long as they request, they can even allow nobles to sell farmers on their fiefs to industrial and commercial people so that they can make profits.

Not enough funds? The state treasury that is abundant under the "National Track" and the Guanshanhai policy can provide loans and support.

Even some "government-run" handicraft industries handed down from the Spring and Autumn Period can be transferred to some wealthy businessmen who want to support them.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the handicraft industries in various countries were mainly government-run. With the development of the times, a large number of private handicraft industries emerged.

However, the School of Economics in Qi State believes that under the premise of "changing people's thinking and careers", and then using official means to continue to restrain those "hundred workers" from doing things, they will harbor resentment.

Another example is to open a mine. If farmers are directly recruited for labor, the people will easily make trouble when they get together, and these farmers will inevitably harbor resentment during a war and may defect.

In this case, it is better to transfer some government-run handicraft industries to private individuals. As for who is eligible to obtain these industries, it is naturally those who support the Qi State School of Economics, that is, those who can benefit from doing so.

In this way, the rich merchants can operate the handicraft industry originally run by the government, and the merchants seek profits, so they will find ways to extract profits, and the monarch only needs to collect taxes.

Moreover, in industries such as opening mines, rich merchants are involved, organized by them, and responsible for accidents. Farmers can also kill a batch of resentment, and farmers will not resent the monarch.

As a monarch, you only need to "choose three out of ten" to obtain enough benefits to enrich the treasury and recruit soldiers.

Moreover, it can greatly promote the economic development of Qi State, and enable the development of handicraft industry. The development of handicraft industry can make "soldiers have armor and soldiers have military chariots". Make the material basis.

In this way, it can guard against nobles and merchants, and at the same time allow merchants and minor nobles to attach themselves to the monarch.

Under the tide of "opening rice paddies" from the outside, the nobles of Qi State instead gained the power to dominate the fiefdom farmers, which made them bound to unite closely around the Marquis of Qi to maintain their interests.

Under the background of the nobles and the merchants, the method of supporting some families to attach themselves to the monarch to form a large-scale handicraft industry, and allowing the nobles to send the farmers in the fief to work in the handicraft industry, not only solved the problem of "all people change their jobs", but also These rich merchants who have been supported must support the monarch, otherwise their interests will be plundered by the nobles.

Moreover, such support can also cause the local wealthy merchants in Qi to break with the Sishang Mohist family. The business of the Sishang Mohist family will inevitably lose the interests of these supported wealthy merchants. Businessmen must rely on the power of Marquis Qi to obtain privileges in the country to win.

After solving the problems of nobles, wealthy merchants, military system, and taxation, the next step is to strengthen the centralization of the monarchy.

The audience's reform back then was based on the enfeoffment system. On the premise of not touching the enfeoffment system, the country was divided into fifteen baronies and six industrial and commercial cities-fifteen agricultural areas needed to provide soldiers, six An industrial and commercial city only needs to pay taxes and provide a small amount of soldiers-then Guan Zhong's idea is: the enfeoffment system is the premise, then the monarch only needs to get five baronies and six industrial and commercial cities, and then he can form a crushing force on the rest of the nobles .

Now that Guan Zhong's reform achievements have long been destroyed, the times have proved that such means can make Qi Huan dominate, but it is not enough to deal with the current situation in the world.

Therefore, Tian He imagined that the centralization of power should be strengthened and a set of administrative means directly governed by the monarchy should be formed.

Tian He imagined that the entire Qi State would be divided into five capitals.

Linzi is in the middle.

Judi served as the eastern front against the Mohists.

Jimo is the rear of Jiaodong.

Gaotang serves as the front line in the direction of Yan and Zhao.

Pingyin served as the front line against Wei, Lu, and Nanxia Sishang.

The five capitals set up a governor named "Dufu" to take charge of military and political power.

Du Dafu is not a feudal doctor, not a title like Shangqing or Shangdafu, but a special existence, similar to the "gong" of Chu State, but it cannot be hereditary.

The candidates for the capital are chosen by the monarch himself, and of course they are selected from among the nobles.

Du Da Fu has no fiefs in the "Five Capitals". They have fiefs as "Doctors", but they have no additional fiefs as "Du Da Fu", so they must obey the monarch.

Under the Du Dafu, there are other administrative agencies, but different from the "Doctors", the candidates for these administrative agencies are not the retainers and scholars of the nobles, but the noble children or scholars selected by the monarch.

In the five capitals, a certain number of standing armies must be set up, and the military power belongs to the monarch, but in general, the command power belongs to the doctor of the capital.

Following the example of Sishang, the Linzi area established a standing army with regular training. The number does not need to be too large, but it needs to be equipped with new weapons, such as matchlock guns and crossbows.

Military officers are served by noble children.

Because Zhu Xia is the eldest son inheritance system, a large number of concubine sons have no chance to rise to the top, gradually degraded from doctors to scholars, and finally from scholars to common people.

Under the original enfeoffment system, one radish was one hole, and unless it expanded abroad, there would not be so many pits to be enfeoffed. Now that the Qi State has been established for hundreds of years, all the pits have been filled.

A large number of nobles and bastards are eager to rise, and Mohism's academic geometry and nine numbers, etc., have to be said to be very useful.

As a monarch, Tian He naturally likes the Mohist "respecting the worthy", but the things that the Mohist has done in the past few years make Tian He dare not "advance the worthy".

What if those sages are Mohists?

Therefore, the children of the nobles are more reliable, forcing a large number of nobles and bastards to learn useful cultural knowledge and serve as military officers and officials.

In other words, the noble family still has fiefdoms.

However, the concubine sons of the noble clan entered the standing army as officers, obtained a promotion channel, and monopolized the candidates for officers, so they would be keen to expand abroad, because they had to find "holes" for their carrots.

At the same time, this upward channel is opened within the nobles, which can also make a large number of nobles and concubines think about studying hard, expand the number of grassroots officers and administrative officials, and make them adapt to the new military system and administrative reforms.

Tian He needn't worry about the radical thinking brought about by Sishang's universal education.If you don’t take the initiative to do it, there will always be a gap between the common people and the nobles. The aristocratic system will always be able to obtain knowledge more easily than the common people.

Zhu Xia's "first eldest son inheritance system" ensured the existence of a large number of "scholar" classes, but this channel was blocked under the hundreds of years of enfeoffment system, Tian He just opened this channel, making the scholar class You can have more opportunities to serve as officials.

Gathering the power of the nobility can fill the vacancy. Otherwise, the family and the country are of the same structure, and the officials at the lower level are all the retainers of the nobility, and the power of the monarch will be impossible to talk about.

Tian He estimates that if the reform is successful, the entire Qi State will become a powerful state united by "monarchs, nobles, and wealthy merchants". Only by external expansion can the nobles and bastards obtain meritorious service, and external expansion can expand those who have been supported. The interests of wealthy businessmen.

In that case, I am afraid that outside the four realms, Yan, Zhao, Wei, Han, Song, etc. will all look to the south.

After solving the problems of the military system, finance, administration, and centralization of power at the upper level, it is necessary to consider the number of soldiers and taxes in order to cooperate with the new military system.

The feudal system has a military system under the feudal system. The military system in which the doctor is the commander, the scholar is the brigade commander, and the peasants and soldiers are integrated is the most suitable.

However, since Tianhe wanted to reform and set up a standing army to deal with wars in the new era, he needed to reform the system.

On the one hand, the peasants on the aristocratic fiefs needed to be provided to the monarch as the "military tax" of the aristocrats, which could be regarded as forced conscripts.

On the other hand, this time the Mohists did help Marquis Qi a great favor. The nobles on the large land south of the Great Wall were wiped out, and either fled or were captured. "The Land Reform.

Tian He felt that he could take advantage of it. If Tian Yan had this means, then the various changes he envisioned would really have a chance.

This time the coup was successful, Tian Yan would definitely continue to cleanse the nobles, and the Mo family would kill a bunch of blood-debt nobles, so the fief could be taken back.

The real power now is the nobles north of the Great Wall. As long as their interests are guaranteed, the reforms south of the Great Wall can be properly carried out.

It is recognized that farmers own land, only need to pay taxes to the monarch, and have the obligation to serve in the army, and the problem of soldiers can also be solved.

Moreover, this is equivalent to expanding the scope of direct control of the monarch, providing space for more nobles and bastards to serve as officials and military officers, and expanding the income of the treasury.

Of course, it is impossible to change everything, and some of the nobles' fiefdoms need to be returned. After all, the nobles are relatives, and it will be bad if the sky is angry and people complain that the nobles think it is tyranny.

Then we need to pick the soft persimmons and at the same time clean up Tian's political enemies.

In this way, if the system of five capitals can be implemented, both Pingyin and Linzi can be held in the hands of the monarch. Using these two places as a pilot, while ensuring the number of soldiers, it can also form a tight structure of the upper-level monarchs, nobles, and wealthy merchants; The middle-class aristocrats and bastards acted as the backbone of the army, and the privileged franchised merchants served as the cornerstone of the city's economy.

This is the road of Qi State conceived by Tian He, which is different from Sishang’s national republic where all people are equal; different from Qin State’s emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business, government-run industry and commerce; Xihe started farming with blood and taxes... Of course, it is also different from Zhou Li's road to becoming a powerful country in the ancient Yan Kingdom.

Tianhe has been planning this road for 20 years, but has never had the chance to implement it.

But now, taking advantage of the situation of the Qi-Mo war, Tian He felt that Tian Shan could inherit his will and complete this road.

In terms of theocracy, follow the Yellow Emperor as the ancestor, and the reincarnation of the Battle of Banquan is Tian's generation.

In terms of government, the Yellow Emperor's learning is used as the skin, and the Guanzi School, which is native to Qi and suitable for the particularity of Qi, is used.

In terms of military system, use the experience of 20 years of fighting in various countries to abandon the aristocratic military system of the feudal system.

In fact... the Mo family's alignment battle this time is an excellent opportunity.

Regarding the matter south of the Great Wall...you can ask the Mo family for help.

Don't the Mohists want to benefit the world?Well, please take over the black pot of offending the nobles of the Qi country, and turn against the generals. Will your Mo family carry it or not?If you recite it, Qi will be strong; if you don't recite it, what face will you have to talk about benefiting the world?

Chu State was able to try reforms because Wu Qi killed many nobles of Chu State in the First Battle of Daliang. have the ability to use this to centralize power.

This is what it means to rejuvenate a country through adversity.

So Tian He thought for a while, and felt that the first thing He Tian Shan wanted to talk about was to immediately release rumors after the coup d'état that the Mohists wanted to benefit the people of Ji and Wen, and that if it was not good for the peace talks, everyone in Qi would know , forcing the Mohists to add this clause to the peace treaty, to contribute to the centralization of Qi.

(End of this chapter)