New Shun 1730

The Sichuan issue has a special historical background. That is, at the beginning of the Northern Expedition of the Dashun Dynasty, the fierce tug-of-war between Sichuan and Shaanxi made Sichuan unable to recover for many years.

Sichuan is called the Land of Abundance, and it should be the center of the southwest region.

However, for a long time, Sichuan's population and financial resources were insufficient. Dashun's previous reform of the land system in the southwest region was based on Xi'an and Xiangyang.

Xi'an cannot be the center of the southwest.

Xiangyang cannot be the center of the southwest.

Only Sichuan and Chengdu can support the title of the center of the southwest.

Now the situation of Dashun is here. There is no war in the north, at least there is no possibility of war in a hundred years.

It is a matter of time for Korea to be county-based, but it must wait until it is strong enough, otherwise it is afraid of scaring Japan in advance.

It is also a matter of time for northern Vietnam to be county-based after the construction of the navy.

However, after all, these places are different from the southwest. Dashun inherited all the legacy of the Ming Dynasty in the southwest and regarded it as "Jinai".

The problem in the north is solved, and going south is the general location.

After nearly a hundred years of recuperation, Sichuan has recovered and is strong enough to support the status of Dashun's southwestern core area.

An important reason why the emperor supported Liu Yu's Sichuan well salt into Hunan and Chu was that the Southwest was transformed into a land-based government, and the Lianghuai salt merchants could not do anything.

To put it in a broader sense, the Lianghuai salt merchants in the northern grasslands could not do anything either; in Nanyang, the Lianghuai salt merchants still could not do anything.

Fat again.

Useless again.

Do you really think that the feudal imperial power's pig-killing and meat-cutting knife does not exist?

The Lianghuai salt merchants have gone to extremes themselves, so it is no wonder that Liu Yu and the emperor took action - if they still have the value of selling salt, market, sales, and transportation, then this time they may not be so ruthless.

The problem is that they make too much money lying down, neither selling nor transporting, and go the way of lending and renting salt. Once the canal is abandoned, they are already worthless.

Therefore, the emperor supported Liu Yu's very bold and radical salt reform policy, and believed that the reform direction of others was tactical, but the Duke of Xingguo had a strategic perspective, which was a true court official.

However, the emperor supported the radical salt policy reform.

The emperor did not support the radical liberalization of the mining industry.

In addition to the factor of chaos once it was released, there is another very important point, that is... because of the war recovery policy and inconvenient transportation, Sichuan has really been a model of "benevolence, righteousness and kingly way" in recent years.

Although Liu Yu thought this was unsustainable, would there be another Sichuan-Shaanxi tug-of-war when the Dashun Dynasty was founded, and Malthus's death knight would come to play?

But the emperor did not look at the problem as rationally and coldly as Liu Yu, so he emphasized this issue in the second red comment to Liu Yu's memorial.

"Since the founding of this dynasty, the population in Sichuan has been declining, and many lenient policies have been implemented. The taxes on population, land, and salt wells are all light, and many policies of recuperation and development have been implemented."

"In the early years, the population was declining, and this dynasty has exempted taxes many times. There are few people and the land is vast, so the middle-class families either farm or study, and there are few big merchants."

"In your memorial a few days ago, you said that Western merchants entering Sichuan were like entering an uninhabited area. This is the reason. They are not good at business and people don't believe in fraud."

"The whole world has the bad habit of drowning baby girls, but the people of Sichuan, regardless of their wealth, must raise their daughters. The beauty of this custom is that Like Taoyuan."

"As for the places you call "developed industry and commerce", the most common places for drowning girls are Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang."

"During the Chenghua period of the previous dynasty, some officials said: Wenzhou, Taizhou and Chuzhou are the three prefectures with the worst custom of drowning baby girls. This problem is not limited to these three prefectures, but also extends to Ning, Shao, Jinhua, and Nanzhili."

"Your Excellency said that if we want to cure the custom of drowning girls, we can only develop textiles."

"Let girls work, earn money for their parents, husbands and parents-in-law, and sell them as bonded workers, then the custom of drowning baby girls can be reduced."

"Every time I read this, I can't help but Sigh: The progress you always talk about, is it to the point where everyone is heartless, all judged by money and profit, and even parents and children are not immune? "

"Is this the way in your heart that you will never regret even if you die nine times?"

"There are changes in the world, and I know it. In this era of great contention, the princes are fighting. However, the Celestial Empire is vast, and with the advancement of the southeast, it can also rival the Western Yi countries. Why don't you leave a piece of pure land for the kingly way of benevolence and righteousness?"

"This criticism is not about the monarch and the ministers, but about the debates of the Hundred Schools of Thought. Confucianism talks about benevolence and righteousness, Mohism talks about universal love, Legalism talks about tactics and power, Taoism talks about Juesheng, what do you believe in? "

"You don't talk about benevolence and righteousness, and you rarely talk about universal love. The study of law, magic and power is even more amusing. "

"Confucianism has the rule of three dynasties, Mohism has universal love and great harmony, and Taoism has small countries and few people. Even Buddhism has reincarnation, and Christianity and Islam have heaven and honey... The world you predict and promote is so cold, everyone talks about profit, and even family affection can be put on the scale. I really don't know what supports you to move forward. "

This is a rare revelation of the emperor's temperament. He said that this is not a discussion between the monarch and his subjects, but an exchange of hundreds of schools of thought.

The emperor knew from the beginning that Liu Yu was a person with Tao in his heart. This Tao may include loyalty to the monarch, the country, and the world, but this is only the virtue derived from Tao.

And what about Tao itself?

Why don't Westerners use hell to attract people? Because everyone knows that it is not good.

But from Liu Yu's original statement that developing the textile industry was the best way to reduce the drowning of female infants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang; from the theory of the four evil people of population that the emperor knew Liu Yu was deceiving the Japanese but was terrified after reading it...all these made the emperor feel that the world Liu Yu wanted was more like a devil's cave hell than the small peasant economy of Dashun.

So the emperor couldn't understand why Liu Yu was so enthusiastic about the devil's cave hell?

You said that believing in Christianity and Islam is understandable, for heaven; believing in Confucianism is for the rule of the Three Dynasties...they are all beautiful.

Everyone has a love of beauty, so why do some people pursue the magic ghost cave that is relative to the rule of the Three Dynasties as a lifelong way?

If we use the words of later generations, the emperor even doubted whether Liu Yu was a mentally abnormal person.

Although the emperor supported many of Liu Yu's policies, the reason for his support was that the emperor was "unrighteous" in his heart, just a political animal, maintaining rule and maintaining monarchy.

If there is no morality, then it doesn't matter, as long as it is suitable.

But the emperor knew that Liu Yu was not the same kind of person as him, and that he was really supported by some beliefs in his heart, which puzzled the emperor.

Of course, the emperor was not going to use this set of morality, small farmers, and pastoral beauty to persuade Liu Yu, because the emperor knew that if he really said that, Liu Yu would definitely continue to petition.

He might still be thinking in his heart, well, it is really strange that the emperor talks about morality and Confucian scholars talk about interests these days.

So the emperor picked up the pen and wrote the third paragraph of red comments, and quoted the second stanza of a couplet at the beginning.

[If you don't judge the situation, both leniency and strictness are wrong, and you need to think deeply about governing Sichuan in the future]

This time, he didn't talk about morality, but purely restored the posture of a political animal, and analyzed to Liu Yu why Sichuan couldn't develop radical capital industries.

Sichuan is located in the southwest, with Tibet in the west, Yunnan and Guizhou in the south, and Miao in the east, all of which are "Yi" people.

Dashun's policy of changing the natives to the flow is very strict.

And the previous policy of separating the Yi and Han made the contradictions between the two sides very deep.

Keeping this state of "separation and never seeing each other again" is fine, as long as you can get by and don't make a fuss.

Changing the natives to the official system is changing the natives to the official system, but this thing is not a policy in the game, which can be done with a click. It requires decades or even hundreds of years of accumulation and change.

The place where mining is developed is not the Chengdu Plain.

Running a mine in such a place will definitely cause serious conflicts between Han and Yi.

Let's not talk about the distant past, just say the "Thousand People Pit" case that happened in the capital not long ago. In the capital, this is just a problem of villains.

But what will it evolve into over there?

The emperor knows exactly what kind of bird is engaged in industry and commerce.

Relying on the previous "controlling Mongolia with business" policy, profit-seeking merchants changed the meaning of a word in just twenty years after Dashun recovered Mobei.

The original "Anda" was a good word on the grassland.

But just like the later "Miss" became "Miss" and "Princess" became "Princess", the word is still the same word, but the meaning is completely different.

It was only 20 years since Dashun took back Mobei, and the word "Anda" has become a synonym for "treacherous", "seeking profit without justice", "dishonest", "Han people who lend money at high interest rates", "interacting with you to cheat your sheep", etc.

The emperor felt that such a radical industrial and commercial policy in Sichuan would lead to endless lawsuits, endless quarrels, and endless civil unrest.

This is the first reason.

Second, Dashun's policy of recuperation in Sichuan, as well as the reform of natives and the previous defense of the Han and Yi people, have made Sichuan officials adhere to the idea of ​​"less trouble is worse than more trouble".

It is best to keep it as it is, otherwise there will be conflicts and problems on both sides if there is too much communication.

At that time, if the water is not balanced, a fight will break out.

After the fight, the officials thought that they were unlucky for eight lifetimes and there was no hope of promotion in this life.

Therefore, under such an environment, Sichuan officials are more conservative than one, which is political wisdom.

If we want to carry out radical reforms, we have to rotate officials in Sichuan, and replace the officials in the bureaucracy, and send those who support reform and development of industry and commerce.

However, that group of people is too radical.

They think that now that the military reform is completed, they are eager to make some military achievements and fight.

How can we make achievements and prosper without fighting and deliberately creating conflicts?

If there is something wrong with opening a mine, I am afraid that it will not be a matter of keeping things quiet, but adding fuel to the fire, and fighting!

The previous officials were worried that "a little negligence will cause border conflicts, and the benefits will not be gained but harmed."

The radicals are simply "if there is a border conflict, we will fight. Anyway, we have good guns and cannons now, so what's there to be afraid of?"

The middle-class who are trying to make peace? Can the middle-class who are trying to make peace handle the various problems in ethnically mixed areas? The emperor did not consider it at all.

And who are the people who firmly support reform in the court? They are all those who shout today to restore the old territory of Han and Tang, and tomorrow to stain the Vatican with blood to restore the humiliation of the missionary case - if the barbarians can go, I can go too.

Why?

Because Liu Yu's set of ideas neither gave the governance of the Three Dynasties, nor the universal love, nor the beauty of heaven.

As long as there is a little bit of "benevolence, righteousness and morality", "kingly politics" and "people-oriented", no one will fully support it. There must be a goal when doing things, right? Why do we do this?

Obviously, Liu Yu can't say that he was digging a hole to bury Dashun. The only thing that seems to be a goal is the glory of Han and Tang and foreign conquests. At least this is a goal.

Although the merchants in Songjiang Prefecture were excited and thought that they were going to fight again, the emperor had no intention of doing so. The policy of changing the natives to officials was not entirely violent. Besides, it would take time. The emperor did not want to use such radical policies to directly intensify the contradictions at this time, when the right path had been found and the situation was slowly digested and "flowering seedlings".

I am not afraid of fighting. But there is a purpose for fighting. If it is for "transforming seedlings" and "stabilizing", then it seems that in the eyes of the emperor, mining is purely going in the opposite direction.