Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 940, Challenges of the New Era

Hearing Emperor Hongzhi's question, Liu Jian immediately didn't know how to reply.

All dynasties have their heydays, but often they will quickly weaken after the heyday, and eventually perish.

There is no way to learn from the history of previous dynasties to guide the development of Ming Dynasty now.

At this time, the heyday of the Ming Dynasty had surpassed any previous dynasties, and there were also problems that had never occurred in any previous dynasties. This made Liu Jian, who had read traditional books all his life, deeply feel that his ability was insufficient, and he didn't know how to deal with it.

When asked by Emperor Hongzhi, he didn't know how to answer.

Deeply aware of the great responsibility, but also can't easily talk nonsense, Daming finally got the current situation, if it is affected by his own wrong views, I'm afraid he will be a sinner through the ages.

"I don't know what to do either."

After a long time, Liu Jian shook his head slightly and said.

"Hmm~"

"What's your best plan?"

Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly, not surprised, then turned to ask Xie Qian, Li Dongyang, Qi Zhong, Zhang Mao and others.

When everyone heard this, they fell silent.

"Your Majesty~"

After a long time, Li Dongyang thought about it and said slowly.

"The prosperity and prosperity of our Ming Dynasty today far exceeds that of the Han and Tang Dynasties. The vastness of the territory is even larger than that of the Mongol Empire back then, with a population of tens of millions."

"Managing such a huge country is a huge challenge for our court and our officials. It is impossible for us to be like before, simply lightly paying taxes and persuading farmers and mulberry. Huge country to manage well."

Li Dongyang said very seriously, this is his most intuitive feeling in the past few years.

The Ming Dynasty has stepped out of the track of previous dynasties and walked on a road that has never been taken before. Naturally, the imperial court is also facing new challenges in the management of the country.

Among other things, taking the territory that Ming now owns as an example, it was only two capitals and thirteen provinces in the past, and it could still be managed by relying on traditional methods.

But now, there are vast grassland provinces and Liaodong provinces in the north, and the vast Western Regions and river regions in the west. It is inevitable that there will be more Nanyang provinces, and in addition to the huge Golden Continent and Australia.

If you want to count the many colonies and vassal states outside Shanghai, etc., it will be even bigger.

With such a huge territory, the time required for exchanges between various places is much longer than before. Among other things, it takes more than two months for the exchange between the imperial court and Australia to send a letter unilaterally.

In addition to the inconvenience of communication and the long time required, there are also many ethnic groups, tribes, etc. living in the huge territory.

There are tribes and countries descended from Yin and Shang on the Golden Continent, Australian aborigines on the Australian side, and a large number of local aborigines in the Nanyang region. The prairie people on the northern grasslands, the Jurchens in the deep mountains and old forests of Liaodong, and the Western Regions. Various tribes.

With such a vast territory and such a complex population structure, it is inconvenient to communicate with each other, the language is difficult, and the life and customs are completely different.

For the imperial court, it is definitely impossible to effectively manage such a huge country and numerous ethnic groups and tribes only by relying on the previous methods.

In the past, in this remote area where there were few Han people, the imperial court would often appoint local tribal leaders to manage the area, which has many advantages.

The imperial court can govern a large area, stabilize the territory, and consolidate the border without much effort.

But the disadvantages are also obvious, because under such extensive management, the sky is high in these places and the emperor is far away. The leaders of these tribes surrendered to the central dynasty when they were weak, but once their strength became stronger, or the central dynasty weakened, they would return to the central dynasty. It will quickly claim to be a country and even simply plot to prosper China.

This kind of history has been staged countless times, over and over again, time and time again, constantly repeating.

Therefore, even if it is strong and prosperous, it can occupy a vast territory, but once it weakens, it will quickly lose these territories. Only places with a large number of Han people will always have a strong centripetal force, and they will always be united with the Central Plains Dynasty.

In this regard, the Western Regions are the best example.

Both the Han and Tang Dynasties occupied and ruled here, but they lost it in the end.

Now the territory and territory of Ming Dynasty surpassed any previous dynasties, any country, and ruled such a huge territory, would Daming still follow the old path of the past?

Above the court, many officials have already written a letter to govern such a vast territory in the way of previous dynasties, which can save energy and facilitate management.

For example, in Huangjinzhou, the local leaders of Yin and Shang tribes are used to manage and maintain the rule of Huangjinzhou. As long as they are loyal to the Ming Dynasty court, it is not necessary to immigrate in large numbers, nor do they have to appoint officials. to manage them.

Because it is very far for the officials to go to these places, and secondly, they will encounter strong resistance from the local people. Daming will be tired of dealing with these, which will not be conducive to the rule of the Golden Continent.

The same is true in the Western Regions. When Liu Jin asked to immigrate millions of people to the Western Regions, he was strongly opposed by many ministers in the court.

Their opinion is nothing more than a waste of money and a waste of money. The financial and material resources that the imperial court needs to consume are too huge. That is to say, the imperial court has money now, otherwise it will not be able to support it at all.

The second is that immigrants have to travel long distances, the journey is long, and it is very hard. The emperor must be sympathetic to the people, and should not let the people move away from their homeland and go to other places.

In addition, the influx of a large number of immigrants will inevitably be opposed by the local people. It is difficult to form an effective management of the local area because of the language and customs.

So it is better to reuse the leaders of the local tribes and let them manage the Western Regions, which is simpler and less troublesome.

Obviously, if such a huge territory is really managed according to the methods of these officials, even if the Ming Dynasty is at its peak, it will be able to control these areas.

But over time, local separatist forces will inevitably breed, and eventually the entire huge territory will fall apart again.

Therefore, Liu Jin strongly opposed it at that time, and was refuted by Liu Jin with lessons learned time and time again in history. Emperor Hongzhi, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang and others also expressed support for Liu Jin.

The problem of the southwestern chieftains has been completely resolved in the past few years because of the strategy of reforming the land and returning them to the local people. The foundation of the rule has been lost, and the local chieftains can't make waves at all.

And emigration was also a strategy formulated by Emperor Hongzhi, so the strategy of appointing exile officials and relocating a large number of Han people was adopted in all places.

Judging from the current situation, despite strong opposition and resistance from the locals in many places, for example, a large number of officials were killed in Jiaozhi and the Western Regions.

But the imperial court quickly mobilized the army to carry out suppression and bloody clean-ups. After a few times, even if they disobeyed, they must obey, and the tribes and people who disobeyed would lose their heads.

After the initial problem was resolved, Ming's rule in various places became smoother, and the tribes in the newly incorporated places supported the rule and management of Ming, and actively assisted in appointing former officials to manage all parties.

Just from this point of view, the huge territory and territory of the Ming Dynasty brought huge challenges to the management of the imperial court, and the previous management methods are obviously not suitable for the current Ming Dynasty.

However, this is only one aspect, and there are many problems facing Daming today.

Huge territory, huge population and complex population structure, numerous ethnic groups, tribes, different languages, characters, customs, beliefs and so on.

In addition, the great changes brought about by the budding of capitalism inside Daming.

There are many problems brought about by the rapid development of capitalism, such as the problem of population flow, a large number of people are concentrated in urban areas, and work in factories, workshops, commercial firms, etc.

Another example is the inflow of a large number of overseas populations. Koreans and Japanese people now like to come to Daming to work and settle down. There are millions of slaves in the Nanyang plantations.

There are also the development of capitalism, the problems of raw materials and markets needed, the soaring price of cotton, and the concentration of people in the cities to live, resulting in no one to cultivate the fields here in Beizhili, and the original grain-producing province has become A place where cotton is grown.

What kind of changes will this bring to Daming, and how should Daming deal with this change?
There is also the problem of the market. Taking the textile factories as an example, the textile factories in Da Ming counted in the tens of thousands. The cloth produced was not only consumed by Da Ming itself, but also a large amount of cloth was sold overseas.

But the production capacity is getting bigger and bigger, what should we do when there is excess capacity?
Insufficient raw materials, overcapacity, population flow, unscrupulous merchants appear in factories, workshops, commercial firms, etc., workers work all day long, without rest, and their bodies can't stand it, etc.

There are just too many, too many problems.

These problems have never occurred before. The key is that when the officials and officials of the Ming Dynasty face these problems, they don't know what to do.

From Liu Jian, the chief assistant of the cabinet, down to the county magistrates and officials in ordinary county offices, etc., many times they don’t know what to do, and the key is that according to the previous model, everyone’s management and operation of a place, Basically do nothing.

Sometimes a local official can be regarded as the master of Qingtian if he can be fair and honest. If he builds some bridges and paves some roads, it will be a gift to the people.

You could live like this before, but can you continue like this now?

Can this continue in the future?

Obviously, it is impossible, and Li Dongyang has already felt this deeply.

(End of this chapter)