New Shun 1730

Don’t be afraid to hide your illness, but in fact, before the canal was abandoned and the grain transport was carried out to the sea, the Yellow River issue was indeed a taboo.

Many people know that the sand-washing game in Hongze Lake will explode sooner or later, and they also know that the Yellow River will get higher and higher and something big will happen sooner or later.

However, no one dared to really solve this problem.

Before Liu Yu presided over the military reform of Dashun, and the flintlock rifles were equipped with bayonets and field artillery, the threat from the north always existed. This existence forced Dashun to choose Beijing as the capital.

The north is the political center and military center, and the south is the economic center. Relying on grain transport and canals to maintain the operation of the empire; relying on the Lianghuai salt administration, it is an important emergency source of funds for the court.

Under this system, many problems are unsolvable.

It has been called for many years that the grain transport must be abolished before the river is regulated. Before Dashun went to Nanyang and completely defeated the Western fleet, there were the Taiwan incidents of the previous dynasty and the maritime strategic mobilization of Dashun to attack Japan as a lesson. No matter how much they shouted, they dared not move.

After the sea transportation problem was solved, the Yellow River problem was really brought up for discussion, or it was qualified to "not be afraid of the disease and avoid treatment".

Before this, everyone could only play dumb and wishfully believe that nothing serious would happen to the Yellow River.

Liu Yu had opened the abscess, but he was willing to kill and not bury it, and made it clear that there was no need to consider completely curing the Yellow River. With the ability of Dashun and the productivity level at that time, it was enough to prepare for disaster relief.

In the emperor's view, Dashun and Daming were different on some fundamental issues.

The pure political significance of Daming was to integrate the forces of the north and the south and to prevent the invasion of barbarians north of the northern farming line.

The pure political significance of Dashun, after the northern problem was solved, was actually to strengthen centralization and fiscal revenue, use the country's regulatory capabilities, and use various means to ease internal conflicts and continue the rule.

Compared with disaster relief, which was "conservative treatment and waiting to die", reform and expansion of immigration were "active treatment and waiting to die".

This kind of change made the emperor have to accept some reforms to a certain extent.

Liu Yu had been fooling the emperor about many things, and fooling the emperor to do so for the emperor.

The emperor was certainly not a fool, but he still supported it because he really saw the benefits.

Many things, just like Kang Budai said that Liu Yu was not a Dashun person, the same thing, in the eyes of Liu Yu and the emperor, was a completely different conclusion.

For example.

The previous copper coin mint called the rest event, Suzhou weavers went on strike, Songjiang Prefecture kicked workers went on strike, Guangzhou Prefecture stonemasons and shoemakers organized the "West Family Guild" to fight against the East Family, etc.

In Liu Yu's view, this is the proof... germination... development... limitations... blah blah blah.

In the emperor's view, it was very different.

The emperor carefully studied these similar events and came to three conclusions.

First: These craftsmen are weak. These people who make a living by their skills go on strike, which is very easy to deal with. They are very inclined to sacrifice the leader, and they support the stability of the court because they themselves are the beneficiaries of the stability of the court.

Second: These craftsmen only have economic demands, and they have not put forward any slogans that can threaten Dashun. On the other hand, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the real threat was the group of people who put forward clear political demands and rough programs.

Including but not limited to equalizing land and exempting grain, equalizing the world, eliminating injustice, reducing rent and perpetual tenancy, etc. The main force was small farmers who lost their land, and various miners and slaves.

Third: These craftsmen tend to believe in the honest officials of the court, and are more afraid and afraid of the factory owners and bosses, and regard them as bad people. And the factory owners, because they can't beat them, also need the protection of the court more. At the same time, because of the extreme poverty in the rural areas of Dashun, both craftsmen and factory owners are basically satisfied with their current stable life.

From this, the emperor came to a conclusion: that is, his imperial power can be superior to craftsmen and factory owners in a transcendent manner. When necessary, stand on the side of the craftsmen; when necessary, stand on the side of the factory owners.

Such fragile, weak people who make a living by relying on their skills can't accomplish anything. And they are very supportive of the stability of the court. Most of the time, they only need to ask the factory owners to pay more money, cut some meat and send some wine during the New Year.

This kind of people is not worth worrying about.

Therefore, the emperor supports the development of industry and commerce in southern Jiangsu, because the development of industry and commerce is in the transformation stage before the factory system, and the emperor has not seen anything that can really burst out.

On the contrary, the emperor sees that these people can provide enough taxes, customs revenue, and trade revenue.

The emperor can use these financial gold and silver to curb the real dangerous things.

For example.

A series of event chains such as abolishing canal transportation, changing to sea transportation, repairing the Huaihe River, and changing the salt industry.

From Liu Yu's perspective, it is based on northern Jiangsu and central Jiangsu as the raw material production area, southern Jiangsu as the industrial base, and Nanyang and the West as the market, giving birth to a new class necessary for the new era.

But from the emperor's perspective, it is very different.

In the entire event chain, the emperor sees the following problems.

That is, the monetization of silver since the middle of the Ming Dynasty is irreversible, but money and materials are not the same thing.

The court's rule relied on the materials it controlled, such as food, salt, weapons, etc.

When money was stable, it could be equivalent to materials.

However, the monetization of silver led to the court collecting taxes in silver, and the resources it could control were not many. The court only had some food, but not much, and no salt at all.

Under the premise that the monetization of silver is irreversible, the court's primary task is to ensure that silver can be spent quickly and in large quantities when it wants to spend it, and immediately exchange it for various physical objects that the court urgently needs.

That is, Dashun's current primary task is to open up the rapid conversion of "money-materials". We cannot repeat the mistakes of the Ming Dynasty, where sometimes we cannot buy urgently needed things even if we have money.

In other words, Dashun must ensure that there are enough circulating spot goods on the market, and they are in large quantities.

When necessary, the court can use money to ensure that these large quantities of spot goods can be purchased immediately.

These circulating spot goods must be circulating, but they will not cause a huge impact on the internal.

Then, this requires a reservoir.

This reservoir is Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and some reprocessed products.

When necessary, the court can just change the water pipes leading to those reservoirs.

For example, Liu Yu's operation on the Huaihe River incident.

The essence is to use silver to buy coarse grains from large plantations and farms in Liaodong, Ezo, Nanyang and other places that are market-oriented and not small farmers. Many coarse grains are used to make wine and sell, so there is sufficient spot.

Moreover, if the country is short of food, Dashun’s navy can be quickly mobilized to quickly transport the grain from Ezo farms and Nanyang rice plantations, which are mainly in the Japanese and Nanyang markets, back to the country. As for the food shortages in Japan and Nanyang, it will not affect the emperor’s rule anyway.

Dashun solved the problem of rapid conversion of "silver and materials", greatly enhanced the power of imperial power and strengthened its rule.

If you don’t want to return to the "in-kind tax" of the previous dynasty, then how to ensure that money can buy things is the essence of Dashun’s rule.

Or, return to the in-kind tax before the monetization of silver, increase the corvée, transportation, and loss of the people.

Ensure that the court always has food, salt, and cloth.

Or, if it is determined that it cannot be returned, then ensure that bulk materials can be bought.

Ensuring that the court has money and a navy is equivalent to having food, salt, and cloth.

Since Liu Yu jumped to the decision-making level of Dashun, Li Gan, the emperor of Dashun, actually spent twenty years to figure out one thing.

And this thing can be summarized in one sentence.

The emperor spent twenty years to figure out: Oh, it turns out that money is not wealth, but food, rice, salt, iron tools, oxen, and cloth are wealth.

It seems funny that the emperor spent twenty years to figure this out?

But in fact, it is not funny.

In the 23rd year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, Qiu Jun submitted a memorial arguing that the use of silver was equivalent to the country giving up the right to mint coins and giving the right to mint coins to merchants; then in the first year of Longqing, silver was officially monetized and taxation was silverized; then Dashun took the initiative to overseas trade and silver poured in... After groping for a full two hundred years, I finally figured it out and it was completely different from the previous era of levying taxes in kind.

I finally came to my senses.

After the emperor came to his senses, he looked back at the direction of reforms over the years and finally understood all the reforms with his own understanding, or what he thought was an effective set of logic.

For example, the salt field reform.

The reason why the emperor supported it was because large salt fields were easy to manage, and when needed, only a small team of soldiers and three or five jailers were needed to completely take over these large salt fields to ensure salt production.

In other words, it ensured that the court had salt.

And the small producer model of Huainan salt... With the same output of 1 million shi, is it easier to control a large salt field? Or is it easier to control 70,000 to 80,000 small producers of salt?

Another example is those who run farms and plantations in Ezo, Northeast China, and Nanyang.

If the court urgently needs 1 million shi of grain, is it easier to get it from these large farms and plantations? Or is it easier to collect 1 million shi of grain from 1 million small farmers?

The emperor calculated that the power he now holds in his hands, which can be considered as the power that the court can control when necessary, is much more than twenty years ago.

In his hand, he has an extra bank that can be used to default on debts in one go, with tens of millions of taels of silver in it, and he can rob it directly when necessary. Although this can only be used once, it may be enough to save lives and turn the tables.

Two more commercial grain bases, when necessary, direct forced requisition, to ensure that Dashun can quickly collect grain when encountering large-scale famines - you can use money, if there is no money, then just use guns.

There is an extra transport company in the chaebol model that has been supported, and when necessary, direct forced requisition, to ensure that money can buy materials and materials can be transported to the place.

Now, all that is missing is a salt production base. This salt production base must be dense, centralized, with few people, and easy to take over. When necessary, it must be able to guarantee an annual output of 200 to 300 million jin.

When everything is stable and everything goes well, the court only needs money.

However, once something goes wrong, money is useless or there is no money available, he can use naval guns, cannons, and muskets to control these things.

The emperor has summed up two truths in the past 20 years.

First: Dashun's 1 billion mu of land belonged to the gentry, and the emperor was unable to mobilize the power of these 1 billion mu of land. However, large salt fields and large farms could belong to the emperor, and the emperor only needed an army to control and transform them into the power of imperial power.

Controlling a large salt field with a steam engine and controlling 100,000 small salt farmers have the same meaning to the imperial power, but the cost is very different.

The second one: When the chaos comes, such as the lesson given to Dashun in the late Ming Dynasty, money is not as useful as grain, salt, iron, and cloth.

After the court gave up the in-kind tax, the grassroots control, and the equal-field system, it could no longer govern according to the experience of the in-kind tax era.

As for the reasons given by the emperor and Lin Min, they are just high-sounding.

The emperor simply didn't care at all that the change in the industrial structure of Huainan led to the unemployment of hundreds of thousands of people related to the salt industry in Yangzhou Prefecture and other places.

But it was not easy to say it directly, so he used reasons such as "great righteousness" and "great profit"; using the principle of preparing for a rainy day, he hinted to Lin Min that the decline of Yangzhou and Huai'an was the necessary price for "preventing trouble before it happens".

Either you solve the Yellow River problem; or you solve the Jiangsu problem.