Xinshun 1730

Chapter 544 The most credible sword of imperial power
Several ministers laughed, and Liu Yu thought to himself that I never thought of saying something like "wasting food because of choking".

But the emperor said so, and he didn't answer the words, how could it appear that the emperor is wise and powerful, with accurate judgment and accurate knowledge of people?
He had no choice but to pretend to be embarrassed, as if "wasting food because of choking" had reached his mouth and was swallowed back into his stomach by him.

After playing for a while, he said: "I think that this matter is actually easy to solve. Japan eats sugar, but if the sugar can't be sold, they beat Japan and let him only buy sugar from the dynasty; Indians also eat sugar, and the sugar If you can’t sell it, you can beat India and stop them from buying British sugar; if the Persians still eat sugar, you can beat Persia and stop them from buying Dutch sugar. Isn’t that the solution?”

The few ministers next to me suppressed their laughter, and said in their hearts that we also guessed what you would say.Jinghou, Jinghou, he is a sage on the outside and a king on the inside, you are clinging to dominance.

One or two people who knew the basics also felt that Liu Yu's head was full of war.

Water transportation is changed to sea transportation, and war is started. As long as there is no maritime threat from Nanyang, sea transportation will be safe; Limit the quantity, start a war, and fight until the porcelain is sold; now even white sugar, brown sugar and rock sugar are directly thinking about starting a war... Really, speechless.

Some also think that it is easy to sell silk, porcelain, tea, etc. thanks to it.If these things are not easy to sell, or if people are secluded and don’t buy them, and are ordered to be frugal, wouldn’t they want to go to Europe from Japan just to sell tea?

When others say this, most of them will think it is really violent.But when Liu Yu talked about it every day in the court, these people were numb to hearing it, and felt that if Liu Yu didn't think so, there would be a big problem.

After finishing the usual remarks, Liu Yu said again: "As for the saying that businessmen seek profit without virtue, this matter... When there were preferential exemptions in the previous dynasty, how many people brought land to work and evaded the regular tax. I don't see them reading sage books, so they have much higher morals than businessmen."

The emperor laughed. The example Liu Yu gave is really not very pleasant, but the reality is not always so beautiful.

Li Gan thought in his heart, I still understand you, I have even thought out what words you want to say.The example you gave is exactly what I expected.It seems that you are really afraid of what the Dutchman says?Or do you think I will really give up eating because of choking?

However, in fact Liu Yu is not really afraid of what Valkner said.

The Netherlands is Holland, and Dashun is Dashun. The situation on the two sides is fundamentally different.

In Liu Yu's view, Valknier's concern is that a foreigner who thinks he understands China uses Dutch experience to understand China's affairs.

For Dashun, the uprising of the handicraft factory was a trivial matter.

On the contrary, domestic dumping, the bankruptcy of small farmers, and the disintegration of men farming and women weaving, these are the major events.

The Netherlands is not afraid of the latter, but the former, because the Netherlands does not have the latter; but Dashun does not care about the former at all, and is afraid of the latter.

Although the two are one body with two sides, the direction of the Dutch poisoning was wrong.

Liu Yu is not a Dutchman, so he knows the situation in Dashun very well, so there is an obvious boundary for those handicraft factories he built: resolutely refrain from touching "sensitive" industries such as the textile industry in the early stage.

Dashun has no shortage of labor force, and doesn't need any land enclosure movement, just relying on normal mergers, or even suppressing the landless refugees under the merger policy, can't be used.

Even if the emperor is out of his mind now and really uses the "30-year land rent redemption policy" of the northern Confucian scholars to achieve national land equalization, there will be no shortage of labor.

At this time, the sugar market in the entire world can accommodate 50 million workers, including slaves, serfs cutting sugar cane, and so on.

In fact, the world's consumption capacity at this time, purely industrial workers in sugar factories, even if there is no steam engine and horse-drawn winch, can accommodate up to 10 people.

Moreover, mercantilism and high tariff barriers are popular in all countries, and they all want to be a brave man who only eats but does not pull.Dashun can accommodate a labor force of 5 to [-] people at most.

What are these people enough for?Don't say that it is impossible for all to revolt together. Even if they come together, 5 people, will the court take it to heart?
Therefore, Liu Yu has always believed that the world market at this time is too small. At this time, the whole world may not be able to accommodate the productivity of a handicraft factory in southern Jiangsu in the pre-steam age, or even use the entire Jiangsu.

The essence of industrializing a province first is to treat the rest of the country as a colony and quickly disintegrate the small-scale peasant economy where men farm and women weave.For this alone, the emperor must not allow it.

If you want to do this, you must separatize one side, or pull the flag in troubled times, create a country on the top of a mountain, a paradise on earth, and treat the rest of the place as a colony. It’s no nonsense. It’s simple and effective to directly dump the old economic foundation. , By the way, it can force the court to deal with a large-scale uprising.

But in the imperial court, doing so is courting death.The pillar of the imperial system is the small peasant economy, and whoever becomes the emperor must find a way to suppress mergers and stabilize small peasants.

Valknir disgusted Dashun with the big place of Batavia, like a boat begging for a sword. In fact, to put it bluntly, an uprising of 5000 people in less than a hundred years since the founding of Dashun is a big deal?An uprising of less than [-] to [-] people that cannot shake the scale of three states and five counties is not eligible to be recorded in the history books.

The "danger in the eyes of the emperor" brought about by the handicraft revolution, Liu Yu has long drawn a red line and never touched it.

As for the various situations beyond the red line, it is not considered a waste of food because of choking, but at most it is considered that a piece of black rice from the pot is stuck on the dish when eating.

On the contrary, Valknir's words will remind the emperor to expand and seize the market in reverse.

Because, some things have come to this point, the emperor knows very well that there is no going back.

The way to go back is nothing more than the clichés of the Northern Confucian school, and all kinds of magical changes made by the Ida System.

The nonsense ideas of Yan Yuan and Li Wei's 30-year land rent redemption and so on are not bad.

It's the same, correct nonsense as "I could lift Mount Tarzan if I were really strong."It cannot be said to be wrong, the key is: the result is very good, but how to do it?

The emperor is not Wang Mang, how could he be so stupid as to take this step?
Besides, as far as the emperor's temperament is concerned, Liu Yu can be considered to have figured it out a little bit.

Even if the emperor wants to return to the era of pure small farmers, restore the old system of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, turn the whole country into a large rural area, control population flow, etc., he still needs to do it step by step.

Whether it is immigration or land reclamation, it is all to alleviate the conflict between man and land.And this requires money, a lot of money.

It’s like what Liu Yu said to Tokugawa Yoshimune when he was negotiating in Japan: Whether Tokugawa Yoshimune wants to reform or regress, he must first be a comprador for a few years and save money.

Dashun is the same here.

Whether it is progress or retreat, it has to expand abroad for a few years and support a wave of business and industry, so as to save money.

Without money, nothing can be done.

Moreover, the imperial court was "trapped" by Liu Yu before, coupled with the emperor's impatience, so that the stall was too big.

It’s immigration from the Western Regions, reclamation of Mongolia, and expansion of the Northwest. It’s been a long time, and a lot of money has been spent. It's all in vain.

Especially after the emperor saw the benefits of commercial taxation, buying, monopoly, etc., he could only take a step forward when he looked at the money in his bulging wallet and the annual reports of money requests from Mongolia and other places in the Western Regions.

The emperor even took the initiative to say the four words "wasting food because of choking".

Although the important minister only took it as a joke for the emperor to tease Liu Yu, he also understood that the emperor himself said these four words, which seemed to be ridiculing Liu Yu, but in fact, he temporarily suppressed this matter and temporarily characterized it as " Whoever makes a fuss about this will waste his food because of choking."

After all, these four words came from the emperor's mouth. Although he joked that he guessed that Liu Yu would say that, he didn't say that Liu Yu was wrong to think so.

Liu Yu used this to advocate the theory that expansion is beneficial, but the emperor still did not refute it, as if he had guessed that Liu Yu would say such a thing, and laughed.

In fact, this is already the norm in the entire Dashun court, and those who advocate the start of war talk about it every day.

In the beginning, there were a few words of militarism and overbearing, but later I really didn't bother to spray, and I got used to it, just farting.Anyway, the emperor didn't say what to listen to and what to do.

After the emperor laughed, he was also the same as usual, only taking the words of expansion and benefit as the daily routine of being shouted "Long live" every day, and did not continue to talk along these words at all.

It's about what Dashun can learn from the Batavia incident.

"In the past, the weavers in Suzhou Prefecture all went together and called Xie. Although there is a monument that is permanently forbidden to call Xie, they only do weaving, spinning, embroidery and other industries. Moreover, they are only established in Suzhou Prefecture. It is difficult to know elsewhere, and they may not know how to deal with this matter. "

"I've never seen it before, and I don't know what to do. At that time, it will be like Changzhou County. The affairs of the county will be discussed in the court. Fortunately, the weavers only ask for extra wine and piece wages. If Batavia sugar Regarding the matter of the factory, wait until the news spreads from Suzhou to the capital, and then back after the court meeting, I am afraid that things will get out of control."

"That's why, I think, in the future, if we set up industries and workshops, if we still have industries, everything will remain the same."

"And any new industry can only be built in Zhili, Songjiang, and Wendeng. It cannot be built elsewhere."

"Zhili, Songjiang, and Wendeng each have garrisons. Even if something happens, it's easy to deal with. Besides, the officials in these places are also familiar with business affairs, and it's better than those who have never seen it before. "

"It's like the officials who have been reforming the land in the southwest. If you ask them to deal with business and other matters, I'm afraid they won't be able to deal with them."

After the emperor finished his thoughts, the implication was that the Batavia incident, although it looked scary, was because the Netherlands was too small at that time and there were too few soldiers.

Wendeng has a small station camp, and there are [-] to [-] regular field troops stationed all the time. It is also the garrison of the navy, and there are also many marines.

There are now 8000 field troops stationed around Songjiang, just to guard against businessmen who are too powerful.The emperor wants the merchants in Songjiang to be chickens that lay eggs and pigs raised in captivity, so he naturally sent someone to watch them.

As for Zhili, let alone.The largest number of field troops in Dashun was stationed in the Zhili area.

In the eyes of the emperor, Valknir's words were indeed somewhat ridiculous.

Indeed, the market of the Dutch East India Company stretches from Cape Town to Japan, and it can even be said that Batavia's sugar accounts for one-third of the world's market share excluding East Asia.

The problem is that with such a large scale, there are only a few thousand people who actually pull the pole to start an incident.

Even if all those people rioted, it would be only ten to twenty thousand people who cut trees into soldiers.The Netherlands can't pull out many soldiers, and thinks this is a big deal.

For Dashun, a large industry that produces one-third of a certain commodity in the world's trade, only a few people rioted, what's so scary?
How big is the uprising of 5000 people?A county can cause an uprising of 2 or [-] people, but how much land tax revenue does a county have?Only [-].

Now after the military reform, the soldiers are strong and the horses are strong.

Will the nearly [-] field troops in the Zhili area be afraid of an uprising of thousands of people?The [-] field troops in the Songjiang area and the [-] field troops in the Weihai camp in Wendeng can immediately suppress the signs of an uprising.

The emperor still doesn't know where the really scary thing is, even if he just vaguely touches the edge, he still doesn't know so clearly.

Since the founding of Dashun, the policy on industry and commerce has been relatively loose. The large amount of gold mining in the Qixia area shows that Dashun is not worried about the so-called "fighting and ruthless people gathering together to fear trouble."

It is impossible to frighten Dashun with this.

As for the truly terrifying things that would kill the Dashun Dynasty, that would bankrupt small farmers and completely disintegrate the natural economy, Liu Yu had been hiding them from the emperor to see the signs.

Valkner had a good idea of ​​trying to scare Dashun, but he was from the Netherlands, not from the Celestial Dynasty, so he had no idea what the Emperor of the Celestial Dynasty was afraid of.

Liu Yu thought about these places, and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty is wise! In this way, nothing will go wrong."

In my heart, I thought that it would be enough to only allow new industries to be established in Songjiang and Zhili, excluding the economic prosperity of the deformed military camp of Wendeng's special envoy.

Songjiang has the advantages of water transportation and sea transportation, and is a center of light industry.There are large coal mines around Zhili, and a large iron mine that can be completely controlled in the north. Basically, there will be no shortage of materials for emerging industries.Put it under the eyes of the emperor first, and put it under the supervision of the elite field troops commanded by the imperial power. On the contrary, it is the most dangerous place, but the safest place, where you can grow up slowly and secretly.

The Minister of the Household Government also said: "I think that your Majesty's insight is really far-reaching, and the ministers are really inferior. In this way, things will not be difficult to control, and officials will be able to learn how to deal with them, and they will not be overly oppressive. Moreover, when soldiers leave the army in the future, they will have something to do, so they won’t be unemployed and cause trouble.”

But the emperor immediately shook his head and said: "If the retired soldiers have no property, the imperial court may pay them to immigrate to the Western Regions and the Whale Sea to reclaim wasteland. Don't be confused about this!"

"People who are retired from the navy can do business and go to sea with the ship."

"However, people who have retired from the army would rather spend more money to immigrate, so that they can work in agriculture, or buy permanent land, or be registered as a soldier of a border guard, or as a son of a good family, and they must not enter the factory for temporary convenience. , and leave it for the future.”

"In addition, the [-] garrisons in Songjiang should pay attention to rotation in the future. It is best to use the family property as self-cultivating farmers, government soldiers, and good family sons. It is not possible to recruit troops from disaster victims to guard."

(End of this chapter)