I'm really not doing business

Chapter 834 The only person the Ming Dynasty had to defeat was itself

Li Zhi was a madman. As a Confucian scholar, he actually dared to question Confucius, which was simply treason. However, Li Zhi knew very well that in order to prevent Confucianism from becoming a shackle to the new, he must start with Confucius, the most holy teacher of Confucianism.

Because Confucius is the classic and idol of old Confucianism, even though he repeatedly opposed becoming a classic and idol during his lifetime, he eventually became the most holy teacher.

Overcorrection is inevitable. His sharp criticism of Confucius will inevitably make him controversial, but so what?

It is enough if people start to think whether Confucius' words are still applicable to the current era.

When the era in which a saint of a civilization ends, all he will leave behind are shackles and fetters for the civilization. Even if Confucius was really a saint and could foresee things five hundred years into the future, his theories and thoughts would have already begun to lag behind in the 501st year.

Confucius himself clearly saw this day, and he repeatedly emphasized to his students: "People can promote the Tao, not the Tao can promote people." People can promote the Tao, not the Tao can promote people.

In the relationship between man and Tao, man is alive, and Tao is alive. Man can continuously spread, promote, and develop Tao through his own efforts, learning, practice, and thinking. Tao will not become great or noble spontaneously.
If people are dead, the Tao is dead. When Confucian scholars began to explain but not create, people died and the Tao was dead.

Confucius said: "Do I have any knowledge? I have no knowledge. A vulgar man asked me a question, which was empty, and I asked him both ends and exhausted it.
Do I really know everything? If you think so, you are ignorant. No one can know everything. That is false. A vulgar person came to ask me a question. I knew nothing about the question he asked. I also wanted to explore the question from both the positive and negative sides until I solved the problem clearly.

You think you know everything, but in fact you know nothing; if it is something you are not good at, you should humbly ask for advice.

Even the Shang king, who worshipped ghosts and gods, felt that his ancestors were not omnipotent and had to modify the results of divination on his own.

Confucius never wanted to portray himself as an omniscient and omnipotent saint, because he knew that such a person did not exist. He was against knowing everything and against deifying a person. He knew that people were not saints, and his thoughts and theories were subject to the limitations of his time.

That is why Confucius said: If I were a saint and a benevolent person, how could I dare to do that? But if I never tire of doing it and never tire of teaching others, then I can say that it is all.

When his disciples called Confucius a saint, Confucius explicitly denied this statement, because he did not want to become a shackle and fetters to the progress of civilization, but unfortunately, Confucius has now become a shackle and fetters.

The theories from thousands of years ago are regarded as the golden rule by conservatives; his correctness cannot be questioned, and even interpreting his words is regarded as disrespectful to the saint; he is deified and becomes the idol he least wants to be.

Isn't this a betrayal of Confucius by Confucian scholars?

What Li Zhi wanted was a world where Confucianism could be supported or questioned, studied or ridiculed. He simply wanted to deify the Confucian master and return to his original state as a teacher. Therefore, he traveled around giving lectures. If he could win the heart of one person, he would feel worthy of all his years of hard work.

This may be an eternal dilemma in the history of ideological development. When a trend of thought is institutionally incorporated into authority, its original critical nature can no longer be maintained. This may be the historical reality of the saying that overcorrection is the only way to correct a wrong.

The history of the development of the history of thought is always full of various kinds of flipping pancakes, completely denying and opposing the past, and in the long river of time, re-understanding the past and finally reaching another consensus. This law of negation of negation is called flipping pancakes.

Similarly, Li Zhi's lectures and talks were also filled with thoughts on today's world.

Liu Ji said with a complicated expression: "The difference between value and price will gradually form a gap. This difference is a process of exploitation, exploiting others' labor, exploiting others' time, and exploiting others' lives."

"Wang Situ once said that silver is the hard-earned money of the people, and it is true. A person's life's labor, practice, and the meaning of life are all concentrated in a silver coin. Whoever possesses it will gain all of it."

"This is the root of the terrible power of profit. The development of commodity economy is accelerating all of this."

Liu Ji agreed with Li Zhi's opinion very much because he had seen bloody examples.

The bloody gold from the Gold Coast of West Africa, the silver lifted out of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and the cocoa grown amidst the piles of corpses in the Peruvian plantations are all true footnotes to Li Zhi's saying "profit is exploitation, and exploitation is profit."

"The disagreement between value and price is also an eternal contradiction." Wang Qian agreed with Li Zhi's words. He was in charge of Yanxing Tower, where the disagreement between value and price was even more distorted.

Some bad stocks, such as a three-masted plywood ship that had reached the end of its service life, were also set up by some people. Some people believed that the Ming Dynasty craftsmen could achieve superb craftsmanship or use copper to cover wood to extend the life of the ship, so they rushed in to chase the rise, and were eventually completely trapped.

There are too many fools and not enough scammers. This is the basic situation of Yanxinglou Trading Company.

Li Zhi had his own limitations. Just as he used Confucius to oppose Confucius, he fiercely criticized the alienated Confucianism, but did not propose a systematic alternative. The secular proposition that "wearing clothes and eating are the physics of human relations" is not enough to build a new theoretical framework.

What Li Zhi did has always been clear: he was a critic, and he was more engaged in destructive enlightenment rather than constructive reform.

Liu Ji, Wang Qian, Ye Xianggao, Xiong Tingbi, Yao Guangming and others seemed to be at a loss as to what to do about this disagreement. After much thought, Wang Qian discovered that this disagreement could only be made up by maintaining sufficient increments. Once the increments could not be maintained, the world would collapse immediately.

"That's why the Dinghai school system is so important." Ye Xianggao suddenly said to everyone present: "Education, cultivating more talents, this is the only solution."

"Huh? Yes." Wang Qian raised his eyebrows. He found that Ye Xianggao was something, and he could see it more clearly than Wang Qian.

Wang Qian knew about the Sunset Project Xinri Canal proposed by his father. Wang Chonggu believed that the construction of the Xinri Canal represented that the Ming Dynasty had become the new empire on which the sun never sets.

But after Ye Xianggao said this, Wang Qian believed that if the Dinghai school system could be implemented, it would be a real new Japan.

The Dinghai school system is a complete school system aimed at universal education. The entire design is very complex, and the investment is measured in hundreds of years. The ultimate goal is to allow everyone to go to school. This is a huge investment and is also the core of Zhang Juzheng's narrative of imperial power and grace.

Ye Xianggao suddenly realized that the gap between value and price would widen over time. The only way to narrow this gap is to have enough increments. This is obvious. Only by maintaining enough increments can the gap between value and price avoid tearing down the entire Ming Dynasty.

There are two ways to maintain growth: one is to expand overseas, and the other is to improve productivity. Overseas expansion is in full swing, so improving productivity will ultimately depend on talents in science and engineering.

The Royal Academy of Sciences, the Polytechnic School, the Kowloon University, the Craftsmen's Industrial School, the Translation Institute, and the Maritime Academy are all higher education. The normal colleges in provincial capitals, normal colleges at all levels, kindergartens, primary schools, ordinary middle schools, and high schools are basic education.

If the Dinghai school system is successful, even if it lacks the ability to expand overseas, it can still provide another solution to improve productivity.

Li Zhi was a critic who was only responsible for destructive enlightenment, but the Ming court headed by Your Majesty was carrying out systematic construction to solve the problem.

The Dinghai school system can cultivate new bureaucrats, maintain the authority of the Ming court, support the needs of industrialization, reserve talents for long-term planning, maintain the cultural sovereignty of the Ming Dynasty, and incorporate the strengths of all schools of thought. Wang Qian suddenly felt that the importance attached to the Dinghai school system should exceed that of the Xinri Canal. This is the real Xinri.

Liu Ji returned to Huitongguan Inn. Today's social gathering at Taibai Tower corrected one of his views. He previously thought that the Ming Dynasty was not as vibrant as the West. This was a mistake. In fact, the Ming Dynasty was being reborn from the ashes. After nirvana, its vitality was far greater than that of the West.

As long as the Ming Dynasty insists on cultivating science and engineering talents, it will be able to maintain this terrifying vitality.

The next morning, Liu Ji waited at Zuoshun Gate, waiting to meet the emperor. After pairs of eunuchs conveyed the emperor's imperial edict, Liu Ji stepped onto the platform step by step and walked into the Wenhua Hall.

Liu Ji bowed five times and kowtowed three times, then said submissively: "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you. Long live Your Majesty."

"I have sailed across the ocean on your orders. This year, I have brought back 632 million ounces of silver, 11 ounces of gold, million catties of saltpeter, million catties of cocoa, barrels of palm oil, million catties of sugar cubes, million catties of fish oil, bottles of quinine, and some chickens."

As soon as these words were spoken, the court officials in Wenhua Hall began to whisper to each other, mainly talking about the chickens that Liu Ji mentioned.

Li Yashi's argument is valid. If the Ming Dynasty has been developing like this for 50 years, I am afraid that the whole world can only rely on farming, grazing, and mining to support the Ming people. The price of all this is that the world-class commodities produced by the Ming Dynasty are in a miserable world. The key is that they can't even farm better than the Ming people!
The suffering of foreigners is becoming a reality, and your Majesty will have to bear the blame.

"No need to be polite." Zhu Yijun said in surprise: "What's the matter with this chicken?"

Liu Ji bowed his head and said, "This is a kind of fighting cock used by the royal family of England. I bought dozens of them and raised them on the ship for fun. I found that they eat less and grow faster, and they are also very good at laying eggs. So I brought them back and presented them to Your Majesty."

Liu Ji didn't know whether it would be useful or not, but His Majesty was very concerned about the dodo, so he began to pay attention to bringing back some poultry and sending them to the Agricultural College for breeding.

"That's right. Next time you see them, catch some and try to raise them to see if they are useful. The Minister of Agriculture will find a use for them." Zhu Yijun nodded confidently.

Let’s talk about whether it is useful or not first, just get it back first. This idea is very correct.

This was the first time Zhu Yijun knew that the English royal family liked cockfighting.
Zhu Yijun doesn’t know much about how to breed broiler breeders and laying hens, but it doesn’t matter. His PhD in agronomy from the College of Agriculture is very familiar with breeding. Every additional type of chicken means more diversity.

For example, Antonio brought an Italian white chicken called Leghorn chicken, which comes from the city of Leghorn in the Tuscany region of Italy.

This type of white laying hen can lay more than 112 eggs a year. The best variety bred by the Agricultural College can lay up to eggs when there is adequate nutrition. If a family raises four to five such white laying hen, the eggs for the family can basically be guaranteed.

This is not the limit of the Liwona chicken. By continuously selecting and breeding excellent Liwona chickens, the egg production will be further improved. Daming has also bred its own series of laying hens, such as Jinghong chicken, Jiangxi chicken, etc.

Liu Ji told a lot of stories about overseas. The court officials were quite surprised that the Ming emperor was very stable in his emotions. This was really normal. In comparison, the plantation economy of the Ming Dynasty seemed extremely moderate.

"Your Majesty, I have traveled the world in trade and found one thing: a broken backbone is hard to connect. This is true from Luzon to Mexico, the ancient Inca Empire, and the West African Gold Coast." Liu Ji said with a sad face, "In these conquered places, the people even took the initiative to defend themselves against the crimes of the colonizers."

"I cannot understand it, but I think that once you are knocked down, you can never stand up again." Liu Ji's words made the Wenhua Hall very quiet. In fact, these words were a bit treasonous. The Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the barbarians. Zhu Yuanzhang started from a broken bowl and rebuilt China, and indeed stood up again.

But can this myth of destiny and standing up again really happen again? Can a broken spine really stand up again?
Was the emergence of Zhu Yuanzhang a historical necessity or a lucky coincidence? Apparently Liu Ji even thought it was a lucky coincidence.

After all, the Romans of the West did not return like lightning.

"The winner will never be judged, nor will he even be morally condemned." Zhu Yijun was silent for a moment and said in summary.

"Your Majesty, I think that the outflow of production technologies such as coal mining, coke, steel, shipbuilding, steam engines, chicken breeds, and bacterial strains should be strictly restricted." Zhang Juzheng listened for a long time, then bowed his head and said, "If possible, the 32 volumes of the Yongle Encyclopedia should not be translated and published overseas."

Zhang Juzheng had long been the leader of the extreme conservatives.

He opposed the overly radical policies of the Ming Emperor more than once, and his actions were quite effective. He was neither open nor tolerant, and was even xenophobic. He believed that it was in the best interests of the Ming Dynasty for all the barbarians to remain at a point where they had not completed the construction of the dynasty.

In this way, the Ming Dynasty could always plunder from overseas and bear the cost of the Ming Dynasty's reform and innovation.

"The previous ban only restricted the Iron Horse, is it going to be expanded now?" Wang Chonggu said hesitantly, "The Iron Horse is easy to control, but as for shipbuilding, the Ming Dynasty wants to sell ships to foreign countries, and the red-haired foreigners in the West can copy the ships they get. Even if the drawings are not exactly the same, they can still complete them bit by bit."

Wang Chonggu felt that such a blockade was actually useless because the West could learn to manufacture Ming Dynasty goods through reverse engineering.

Zhang Juzheng immediately said, "It's better to delay it for a day."

Shen Li sat up straight, looked around, and then said, "I think Yuan Fu's suggestion is very good. Why bother? Teaching the apprentice will starve the master to death. It should be so. It is better to have restrictions than no restrictions."

"I agree." As the new cabinet minister, Zhang Xueyan expressed his opinion that the Ming Dynasty's official factories were the main source of the Ming Dynasty's income. One day's technological lead could earn more monopoly profits.

Wang Daokun, the Minister of Industry, expressed his opinion. He smiled and said, "In fact, what Wang Ci Fu is worried about will not happen generally, because the five-masted ocean-going ship purchased by the West from the Ming Dynasty cannot be copied to this day, and still needs to be purchased from the Ming Dynasty at a high price."

"As long as Daming is conscious of keeping it secret, it will take a hundred years to learn it all."

"For example, silk. The West took the raw silk from the Ming Dynasty and wove silk. It's hard to describe. After the Ming Dynasty banned raw silk and silk exports, all the silk workshops in the West, North and South America were closed."

Wang Daokun was in charge of this matter. He felt that Wang Chonggu's concerns were not wrong, but the time span was calculated in hundreds of years.

Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and said, "I have heard what you said. If the Ming Dynasty deliberately keeps it secret, it will take a hundred years for the West to catch up. If the Ming Dynasty remains stagnant or even regresses in this hundred years, it can only mean that there is a huge problem within the Ming Dynasty."

"The only one the Ming Dynasty has to defeat is itself. Others are beyond our control. It is in vain and persistent."

"It's settled. Send a letter to the Ministry of Works and the Northern Pacification Office to follow the fifth-level confidentiality level. At the very least, the property will be confiscated, and at the worst, the entire family will be exterminated."

The Ming Dynasty was the well-deserved Celestial Empire, and Zhu Yijun was the supreme emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Even so, all he could do was to do his best. How others lived was not entirely determined by his will.

Zhu Yijun was not open-minded, let alone tolerant. He was just the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He had no interest in being a prophet of human civilization, the king of kings, the Heavenly Khan, the great ruler who unified the world, or any of the like. As an emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he of course put the Ming Dynasty first.

As the Minister of Agriculture, Xu Zhenming cultivated a kind of sweet sweet potato that was as thick as two fingers and as long as a foot. This sweet potato had a firm texture, not much fiber, and tasted excellent. Zhu Yijun said it was delicious after eating it!
If the chief physician had not stopped the emperor from eating so much for fear of stomach acid, Zhu Yijun would have finished the entire plate of steamed food.

These were cultivated by the doctors of agronomy of the Ming Dynasty, who worked hard in the wind and rain. How could Zhu Yijun easily give away the seedlings? Good things were not given to outsiders to eat, and the people of the Ming Dynasty only had enough to eat.

"The Patriarch Marion of the Great Light Church captured the port of Le Havre, which is located at the mouth of the Seine River. The capital of France, Paris, is also on the Seine River." Liu Ji talked about the actions of Marion of the Great Light Church.

As soon as Marion returned to Tessy, he summoned believers, followers and knights of the Free Knights the next day and announced the order to attack Le Havre. Three months later, the Great Light Church broke through the port of Le Havre and occupied it stably.

The Seine River is like the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty. If Paris is equivalent to Nanjing, then Le Havre is the Songjiang Prefecture of the Ming Dynasty.

"Are the Free Knights fighting so bravely?" Zhu Yijun said in great surprise. If Songjiang Prefecture fell, Zhu Yijun would immediately prepare to lead the army in person. Letting the bandits occupy the prefecture for one day would be a shame for the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Ji shook his head and said, "It was a combination of internal and external forces. Marion's father, the Duke of Montmorency, persuaded the local lords to not put up too much resistance, and the French royal family did not make any further response. It seemed that no one cared that Le Havre fell into the hands of the Great Illuminati."

The French royal family is now in absolute chaos. No matter how capable Queen Mother Catherine is, she is powerless as the royal family has become extinct and there is no one to inherit.

She could only insist on touring and lobbying throughout France, trying to win people's support for the king, but with little success because the king had really gone too far.

The current King of France, King Henry III of Desserts, prefers male favorites. These beauties, vying with each other for beauty, have made the whole of Paris a mess.

"She is moving towards her goal. I can only wish her success. Of course, the hope seems slim." Zhu Yijun did not attach much importance to this matter and gave his blessing as usual.

Liu Ji bowed his head and said, "The Great Light Church hopes that the Ming Dynasty can distribute some goods to the port of Le Havre. In this way, Le Havre will have the advantage of goods distribution and can be explained to everyone, and the Great Light Church will provide convenience for the Mingguan established by the Ming Dynasty overseas."

Liu Ji explained the exchange in detail. He neither asked Ming to lower the price of goods nor asked for free aid. He just wanted Ming to support some goods. France was a traditional land power kingdom and did not attach much importance to maritime trade. The scale of its maritime trade was far less than that of England, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

This seems a bit like inviting thieves to the country. The Ming Dynasty opened the door to France and dumped goods into France without even using its powerful ships and guns. But for France, with fewer middlemen, these goods would actually inject new vitality into France.

For the Ming Dynasty, in addition to gaining a large market, it can also obtain the support of the Great Light Sect for the Mingguan.

The establishment of Mingguan went extremely smoothly in some places, but had to be carried out covertly in other places. Liu Ji explained this very clearly when he reported to the emperor.

Zhu Yijun thought about it again and again before nodding and saying, "That's fine. The Ming Dynasty's global merchant fleet can go to Le Havre to gather, but Marion must ensure the safety of the Ming Dynasty's merchant ships."

"I obey your command." Liu Ji bowed his head and accepted the order. The merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty traveled with swords. The safety of the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty was protected by their own swords from beginning to end, even in Lisbon. These barbarians in the West could not be relied on at all.

Felipe was known as the Lord on whom the sun never sets and possessed an invincible fleet. He could not even deal with the pirates in the Strait of Gibraltar, right at his doorstep.

But Liu Ji did not correct His Majesty's idea, which provided a rationale for doing things. Sometimes, some things are reasons for interference. The business that Mingguan of the Ming Dynasty wanted to do was a small business to replace it from the beginning.

After Liu Ji finished what he wanted to say, he participated in another court meeting, which made Liu Ji terrified. Only then did he realize that the ministers of the Ming Dynasty quarreled so fiercely.

For example, in order to eliminate redundant staff, the ministers quarreled so much that they almost blew off the roof of the Wenhua Hall.

The wise men of the Ming Dynasty were all very supportive of the idea of ​​eliminating redundant staff, but there were serious differences among them on the specific method of eliminating redundant staff. According to Zhou Liangyin's practical experience in Shanxi, the elimination should start with eliminating the former Jin Party members, which would be the fastest way.

This time, Wang Chonggu did not sell out the Jin Party directly, but argued with reason with a red face.

The Jin Party had already been killed several times and had already fallen apart. If the killing continued like this, it would probably discourage the loyal ministers. Not all members of the Jin Party were traitors. There were also those who were loyal to the emperor and the country. Wang Jiaping did a good job as well. At least Ge Shouli's disciples had never thought of usurping the power of their lord.

Based on this situation, Wang Chonggu’s meaning is that all the people in a department should be eliminated immediately without leaving a single one.

Wang Chonggu said loudly: "Zhou Liangyin is still young!"

"This government office needs to eliminate twenty people. Even if they are eliminated accurately, Zhou Liangyin will have twenty enemies who hate him to death. The remaining eighty people will not work together. After all, it is easier to ruin others' good deeds than to do good things for yourself. It is easy to stir up factional disputes in the local government office."

"These 80 people are afraid of being eliminated, so they only trip each other up, which makes them less efficient."

"How about this: when the elimination is done in a government office, all these 100 people will be laid off, leaving no one behind. Then, 50 new people will be recruited, and 10 people will be selected from the previous 100 people to work with these 50 new people. These old people will get a higher status, and these 50 new people will have work, and they will all benefit greatly from the elimination."

"Huh?!" Zhang Juzheng calmed down and suddenly realized that Wang Chonggu's method seemed faster and more efficient than Zhou Liangyin's. He immediately said, "Wang Ci Fu, that's a good idea! Let's do it this way."

Liu Ji shrank back. These scholars were really smart. After arguing for a few words, they immediately came up with an idea that seemed feasible, and it seemed that as long as it was implemented vigorously and vigorously, it would succeed.

He no longer said that the Ming Dynasty lacked vitality, because the Ming Dynasty never lacked solutions.

"Stop, stop, stop. Let's not discuss this for now." Zhu Yijun stretched out his hand to interrupt the dispute between the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, and said, "Sir, Deputy Prime Minister, don't be impatient. You can't eat hot tofu if you are impatient. Now you are in a hurry to clean up. Aren't these local government officials still the same group of people after changing them? Have they changed?"

"Wait until the Dinghai school system and civil servants examination system have some effect, then there is no rush to discuss it. Let Zhou Liangyin work in Shanxi first and accumulate more experience."

Too impatient, even more impatient than the emperor!
Wang Chonggu's method is very good, but it is not appropriate at the moment. After all the fuss, it will eventually be like putting old wine in new bottles. The gradual implementation of the Liju System and the Dinghai School System will provide a basis for universal elimination.

(End of this chapter)