New Shun 1730

In this era of change, many things are unprecedented.

But the emperor felt that he could see through these superficial differences to some extent. Reading history is still useful, as long as you don't stick to the old ways, but consider the reality at that time.

Just like before reading "Salt and Iron Theory", you must read "Price Balance Book".

And before reading "Price Balance Book", you must read the "account book" of Dashun's previous expedition to the Western Regions to understand what "a thousand miles of burden and grain, more than ten zhong to one shi" means.

Then look at the account book of Dashun's expedition to Southeast Asia, why is the cost of going to Southeast Asia much cheaper than going to the Western Regions for the same expedition of thousands of miles.

In the emperor's view, what Dashun lacked most was actually "wooden oxen and flowing horses", an efficient means of transportation.

Because with the development of Southeast Asia and Kanto, and Liu Yu's strategy of "brewing wine for foreign trade, selling rice in Japan, etc.", in fact, the grain output that Dashun could control was actually basically enough to provide relief when there was a disaster and avoid starvation.

The difficulty always lies in how to transport the grain from Tianjin Port and Songsu Port.

What troubled Dashun was the logistics problem.

This is what Liu Yu said when he was reforming the salt administration. If the salt administration problem is to be finally solved, either every province in the country must be close to the sea or have well salt or mineral salt; or there must be a means of transportation that can reach the Western Regions from the East China Sea within a month.

Whether it is "Pinghuai Shu" or "Yan Tie Lun", from the perspective of the emperor at that time, they are all solutions under the realistic premise of "carrying grain for a thousand miles, more than ten zhong to one shi".

Because the loss of sending grain for a thousand miles is huge, the central government must have money, a lot of money and wealth.

From the perspective of Dashun at that time, many policies exist around this logistics reality.

As for the benefits of monopoly... The emperor envied the British navigation regulations, the super high tea and sugar monopoly income, and the East India Oriental trade goods monopoly income of millions a year. A small country the size of a palm can earn 20 million taels a year, which is simply an object to learn from.

That’s why the emperor supported Liu Yu’s salt policy reform plan and directly built two large semi-industrialized salt fields in southern Sichuan and Huaibei. Britain does not produce tea, but it still collects taxes on the production side, because tea can be considered "produced by the East India Company". After collecting taxes on the production side, the rest will not be collected; and Liu Yu’s salt policy reform plan is essentially to collect taxes on the production side. Salt is produced by those large salt fields, squeezing out inefficient handicraft private salt, and the bigger the factory, the better, which is convenient for taxation on the production side and for the court to directly run it if something happens.

Now for Dashun, there are the benefits of monopoly, and there is no shortage of food and cloth. Even if there is no comprehensive reform, it seems that it can almost extend its life indefinitely to ensure that it can provide relief when there is a famine.

Because, if you only look at the open account books, you can’t understand everything.

For example, the agricultural tax of the previous dynasty was really not much, so why was there a war everywhere?

For example, the 6 million shi of grain transport rice does not seem to be a big burden, but why did it make the people suffer?

Because... the 6 million shi of grain transport rice, the account book only records the amount received, and does not calculate the logistics costs. Counting the logistics costs, losses, corruption, etc., there is no problem with 600 becoming 6,000 - Dashun used to condone corruption in grain transport, because ensuring grain transport is the top priority, and the rest is easy to say. It's like condoning the Yellow River to burst to the south instead of the north.

In the last few years of the Songsu reform, Liu Yu was busy with large-scale infrastructure. Digging canals everywhere, repairing canals, opening canals, and connecting canals.

The emperor understood why Liu Yu valued infrastructure so much, so the emperor understood what Liu Yu's "Grand Canal that does not require water" and the steam version of "wooden oxen and flowing horses" meant to the Dashun court.

Among the strongest countries in the world today, Britain chose canals and built them everywhere; France chose roads and built them everywhere; Dashun could only choose railways and built them everywhere.

Historically, if the British had not been too laissez-faire when building the canal, and had a unified standard similar to that of the railway, as well as an overall plan, at least in the UK, it would take many, many years for the railway to surpass the canal.

Dashun had no choice.

In the case of the north, with the irritable Mother River, it was impossible to build a canal; the clay in the loess area and the North China Plain could turn a shoe weighing three taels into thirty kilograms of yellow clay after rain, so it was useless to build a road at this time.

In the eyes of the emperor, the "Grand Canal without water" and the "wooden ox and flowing horse" that people did not punish and horses did not chew were simply gifts from heaven.

If the railway that cut through the Central Plains from north to south was built, even if 70% of the 4 million shi of grain was consumed in freight, and 1 million shi could arrive in Henan, then there would be no need to consider the sky-high price of 10,000 taels of silver per mile, and even if another 20,000 taels were added, it would be worth it.

The emperor was not afraid of the death of the emperor, but was afraid that the prince would follow the map. There is no clear understanding in my mind, and I don't know how to adapt.

Only with the Tao can you understand everything.

The father said that the road should be built, so he built it with great effort.

But in this changing era, the emperor has seen many things he has never seen before in the past 20 to 30 years. If he encounters any new situation in the future, he, as a father, has never seen it and cannot give clear instructions on what to do. What should he do?

I don't know what to do, so I can only go back to read ancient books. Many things in ancient books are only seen in form, so don't I have to do the same thing as Wang Mang's reform?

The emperor thought that the current situation was not something he could retreat if he wanted to. Dashun had been kidnapped by the reform.

The lesson of Dashun's expedition to Japan was that the navy could quickly maneuver the troops and always ensure an advantage of fighting with more people against fewer.

If you want to solve the problem and abolish the navy, you should theoretically build a railway of tens of thousands of miles along the coastline, but you still have to move forward.

The lesson of Dashun's occupation of Ceylon was that India was the bridgehead to the South Seas. Britain and France both organized local soldiers in India. By then, a territory with a population of over 100 million people would be cannon fodder, and then the southern barbarians would invade.

However, it should be said that until now, including the emperor, no one has been alert to trade and commodities. This cannot be said to be wrong, but it can only be said that being alert now is a bit of a worry.

It is impossible to understand the competition between countries from the perspective of capitalist industrial competition - this is an advanced course, and Dashun really has no chance to experience this kind of competition now.

Then, Dashun can only understand the competition between countries from the traditional perspective of conquest and rule.

From the perspective of conquest and rule, since Dashun can collect taxes in India, can Europeans collect taxes in China?

Is it possible for Yanshenggong to hang portraits of King George of England and King Louis of France? Can the landlords be like the Zamindar of India, as long as they guarantee that I will continue to rule and I will pay taxes on time, and the rest is fine?

After all, Dashun has experienced the bad things in the late Ming Dynasty, and has always felt that it is unreliable. Especially the betrayal in this Bangladesh incident has given the Emperor of Dashun a warning, which is very likely.

Therefore, there is no way to retreat.

If you don’t retreat, you have to maintain the navy.

To maintain the navy, you have to have money.

To have money, you have to trade.

To trade, you have to attack.

To attack, you have to have ministers who are capable of doing things.

Ministers who are capable of doing things have to learn practical knowledge.

To learn practical knowledge, you have to make a distinction between internal and external.

To make a distinction between the inside and the outside, the emperor must be very clear-headed, maintain a balance, know how to play tricks, and understand the direction.

If the direction is not understood, the party struggle cannot be controlled, and the emperor may become a subordinate of the party struggle, and the line issue will override the imperial power. This includes not only the kingly way, hegemony, restoration, etiquette, but also progress, radicalism, industry and commerce, reform, as well as people-oriented, monarch-oriented, feudalism, unification, monopoly, decentralization, etc.

The emperor can have a line, and even the emperor can represent a line, but the emperor cannot let the line override the emperor.

The emperor doubts whether the prince can understand the difference between the two.

This cannot be solved by changing the prince, because the emperor's tendency in the reform makes it impossible for the emperor to determine whether the princes recognize the line or the imperial power.

And changing the prince itself seems to mean that the emperor is conveying his attitude towards the choice of line. In fact, changing people at this time is a weakening of the sacredness of imperial power, which seems to be lowered below the line.

The emperor himself is uncomfortable, or he made it himself.

At the beginning of the reform, the emperor himself did not know whether it was right or not, whether it was good or not, and whether he could cope with the future situation.

He grew up in the reform and pondered in practice. And the reform process was completed by Liu Yu, the "favored minister". Not to mention that it was easy to cause great misunderstandings to let the prince follow and learn, the emperor himself was not at ease to let the prince and Liu Yu have too close contact.

When the reform began to show results, the prince could not keep up with the times at all.

It is not that the prince knew nothing. In fact, the prince learned mathematics from missionaries when he was a child, and he was exposed to new knowledge when he grew up. He was not completely ignorant of things like railways and railways, and he read a lot of practical books.

It is that the prince learned too much and his mind was clearly divided.

Indeed, the emperor wanted to divide the internal and external, but this kind of internal and external division should be made into a mess, with you in me and me in you, rather than making it clear.

When asking about railways, he talked about it according to the new learning ideas; when asking about government affairs, he followed the old learning ideas. This state of being so clearly divided that it is not acceptable is not acceptable.

The emperor wanted the prince to understand that the railway, this crap, only looks new, so there is no way to learn from history when reading history books.

But damn, when you read the book, there is no railway, but there are no straight roads, canals, sea transportation, and the Grand Canal?

It looks new, but I don’t know what it is.

But damn, there was not much time between the Dashun’s attack on the Western Regions and the attack on Japan and the Nanyang. Both of them were decided by 10,000 or 20,000 people, and both were deployed thousands of miles away from the capital. The Western Regions deployed more than 20 or 30 million troops, and the Nanyang attack on Japan was only a few million taels of silver. Where did the difference in logistics and military expenses come from?

Just changed the skin, you don’t know what this thing is?