I'm really not doing business

Chapter 942: Order, the Product of Struggle and Compromise

As the Duke of Fengguo and the first person with military honors in the Ming Dynasty, Qi Jiguang began to keep a sufficient distance from civil officials since he was conferred the title of Earl of Qian'an in the first year of the Wanli reign.

After he was conferred the title of Earl, Zhang Juzheng asked You Shouli to invite Qi Jiguang in public, in order to make Qi Jiguang sever his ties with his previous status as a civil servant.

After Qi Jiguang returned the badge of the Quan Chu Guild Hall to You Shouli, he never went to the Quan Chu Guild Hall alone again.

When the ruler was young and the country was in doubt, Qi Jiguang and Zhang Juzheng, the pair of civil and military officials, did not usurp the throne, but it was impossible for them to do so after that.

The current contact between Qi Jiguang and the prince is very positive. In case anything happens to the emperor, the general and the prime minister will be the best ministers to assist the Ming Empire.

The emperor might encounter some unexpected events that no one wants to see, such as illness, assassination, falling into the water, or laziness.

Zhu Yijun returned to Tonghe Palace and began to deal with today's memorials. He first flipped through the floating notes on the memorials and asked with some doubt: "I have given Xiong Da a credit. Did the censors refute it?"

"No, Your Majesty. Xiong Tingbi mentioned in his secret memorial why he wanted to kill the prisoners, but he did not mention it in his memorial or in the victory report."

"Now that the censors know why these beasts have to be killed, naturally no one will bother them anymore." Feng Bao explained the reason.

The censors were not of Japanese descent. They prevented Xiong Tingbi from being rewarded mainly because killing prisoners was unlucky and they wanted to persuade the emperor to be benevolent and forgiving, rather than speaking for the Japanese.

In the Wenhua Hall, Qi Jiguang suddenly left early. This incident attracted the attention of many people. After learning the whole story, the censors immediately chose to shut up.

It was not knowing the current situation. If Xiong Tingbi had explained the reason earlier, the censors would not have stopped him from being rewarded. There is a difference between killing a group of beasts and killing prisoners.

After eighteen years of rectification and continuous talent selection, the Ming Dynasty's censors have undergone very obvious changes.

Man-eating animals are not human beings, so just kill them.

The reason why the civil servants Xiong Tingbi and Iwami Ginzan were vague and did not make their statements so clear was that they did not want to evoke painful memories of the Ming Dynasty, which would easily lead to emotional intensification and arouse public excitement.

Xiong Tingbi did not want to bring trouble to the imperial court, so he launched an inappropriate war to destroy Japan at an inappropriate time.

Zhu Yijun dealt with various memorials. All the planned highways in Shandong, Jiangzuo, Jiangyou, Guangdong, and Huguang had already started construction, and the court's silver had begun to be distributed everywhere. Zhu Yijun felt that the construction of this highway was very unsmooth, far less smooth than the previous construction of the Wulong Highway in the capital, the Suiyuan Highway, and the Longkai Highway.

Soon, after dealing with several memorials, Zhu Yijun found the crux of the problem: the Labor Party currently had no authoritative figure to coordinate the interests of all parties, resulting in the construction of the Chidao being unsuccessful even if the court gave money.

"Song Shenzong mobilized an army of 350,000 to attack Xia from five directions. Western Xia was already in a desperate situation. Because of the competition for credit, the five directions had constant disagreements, sabotaged each other, and even sent troops to block each other's advance. In the end, there was a lack of unified command, and the attack ended in a whimper." Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial on the table with a solemn expression.

Without Wang the Butcher, Zhu Yijun would have to eat hairy pigs for a while.

Song Shenzong's five-pronged expedition against Xia was an expedition when the Northern Song Dynasty was at its peak. It left many historical lessons. A war that was obviously strong enough to win ended up being a joke.

A ridiculous fact is that the five generals who led the five armies to attack Xia were all of equal rank. They did this because they valued civil officials over military officials, and they did this in order to check and balance each other.

If you do this, let alone fighting, you will just be arguing endlessly.

In the previous controversy surrounding Wang Chonggu’s funeral, some people always thought: If it wasn’t Wang Chonggu, it could have been someone else. Without Wang Chonggu, wouldn’t this government-run factory still be able to survive? !
The situation was worse than expected. Without Wang Chonggu, the emperor's trusted minister, even if he spent money, the construction of the highway would be difficult.

Feng Bao looked at the memorial in front of him and whispered, "Your Majesty, Li Shida's betrayal and his attacks on Wang Jiaping and Wen Chenggong have had a very bad impact. After Wen Chenggong left, the Labor Party was bound to fall into chaos for a period of time."

"After Li Shida's disturbance, the differences became more serious, and there was even a tendency for everyone to feel insecure."

Zhu Yijun's hands kept tapping on the table. After thinking for a long time, Zhu Yijun sat up straight and said to Feng Bao: "Submit a memorial to the Ministry of Justice to expedite the case for Li Shida. The rest of the criminals will be executed in the autumn, as soon as possible."

"I obey your command." Feng Bao bowed his head and accepted the order. He agreed with His Majesty's approach.

A big reason for the current chaos in the Labour Party is that everyone is insecure. No one knows whether they will be affected or implicated by the Li Shida case. The quick execution of Li Shida means that this is the end of the matter and there will be no excessive involvement of others, which will be conducive to the rapid stability of the Labour Party.

"Ci Fu Xuan Ling, Zhou Liangyin and Wang Jiaping come." Zhu Yijun issued another order. These three giants of the Labor Party must not fight among themselves.

Wang Jiaping did not rush for the position immediately after Wang Chonggu's death. He was waiting until the Labor Party and the Shanxi Party were completely separated.

The Labor Party has too strong a Shanxi Party influence. Now that Wang Chonggu is gone, Wang Jiaping will have to wait until the separation is completed before he can take office.

Ling Yunyi is very old, he returned to Beijing to put out a fire. Wang Jiaping can wait, and Wang Jiaping is not a fool like Li Shida.

Zhu Yijun and three ministers held a short meeting which didn't last long, less than half an hour, and the matter was finalized.

Among the three, Ling Yunyi is the most suitable to be the authoritative figure, to cut the Gordian knot, to quickly stabilize the situation, and to sort out and coordinate the relationships among all parties.

Ling Yunyi's main task now is to communicate with local officials in Huguang and Guangdong to get the Beijing-Guangzhou Highway moving. During the construction process, he will listen to the demands of all parties and resolve conflicts of interest among all parties.

Zhou Liangyin's main task was to manage the government-built factories in the north, while Wang Jiaping's main task was to appease the old members of the Jin Party who were losing power.

After losing Wang Chonggu's protection, the old people cried and the new people came in. It has always been like this.

During this period, Wang Jiaping had to coordinate personnel relations, or more specifically, he was responsible for dog fighting.

The logic of the court's work is different from that of the people. The court's logic is to deal with people first and then do things; while collectives such as people, companies, and enterprises do things first and naturally get the people on board.

The reason for the difference before and after is that the court was more bloated and more complicated, and you are in me and I am in you.

Countless personal interests and demands, countless group interests and demands, are intricately intertwined, making it difficult to sort out, untangle, or cut them off. Any slight movement will affect the interests of a large group of people.

Why should individuals or groups give up their own interests for the sake of "greater interests"?
Moreover, each person and each group has a different stance, and their views on which interests are greater interests are completely different.

When doing things in the court, if you do things first, the final result is often that you will go from the majority to the minority, and finally be overthrown, liquidated, and have a lot of blame put on you.

Moreover, it is very difficult to get things done without dealing with people. Some people are not very capable of getting things done, but they are very capable of doing bad things.

For example, Wuqingbo Li Wei, Li Wenquan, and Li Wengui, they messed around with the Baochao, but they didn't lose much silver and almost destroyed the credibility of the Baochao.

Therefore, when the imperial court does things, it must first get people on board. In the process of getting people on board, it must find the most common consensus as a starting point and unite all those who can be united.

Before Zhang Juzheng launched the new policy of performance evaluation, he first dealt with Yang Bo and forced Yang Bo to agree to the performance evaluation system before he began to implement it.

When the scale of a community is large enough, involving enough stakeholders, and the interests and demands of individuals and groups are too complicated to sort out, this bloat and the various problems it brings will quickly erupt in the community.

There are people who are corrupt in the government-run factories, but no one in the private factories is corrupt?

After the seating arrangement was determined in the government, it became easier for the people below to take sides. There was some turmoil in the Labor Party, but the problem was not serious. With careful analysis, this turmoil will slowly subside.

Zhu Yijun waited until the three important ministers left before continuing to deal with the memorial. He looked at the memorial in front of him, hesitated for a moment, and finally approved it.

Ever since Wang Guoguang retired, Zhang Xueyan has been the only one holding the responsibilities in the Ministry of Revenue. Originally, the position of Junior Tutor was reserved for Hou Yuzhao, who would return to Beijing to be Junior Tutor after he finished returning the land in Zhejiang, but Hou Yuzhao himself refused to come back.

Since last winter, the court had been debating several times who would be the Junior Minister of the Interior, and finally decided on He Qiming, the Governor of Sichuan.

He Qiming was a Jinshi in the 38th year of Jiajing. He started his career as a county magistrate 40 years later. He suppressed bandits, opened schools, and managed the Yellow River. In the second year of Longqing, He Qiming became the chancellor of Shuntian Prefecture. This position was very critical, but in this year, He Qiming impeached Gao Gong for his "Beijing Inspection Plan", which was called Beijing Inspection but was actually to exclude dissidents.

Unable to win the fight against the anti-Gao faction, He Qiming had no choice but to retire and return home.

In the first year of the Wanli reign, he was reinstated and went to Guizhou. In the fifth year of the Wanli reign, he went to Huguang. In the tenth year of the Wanli reign, he went to Shandong. In the fifteenth year of the Wanli reign, he went to Sichuan. During these ten years, He Qiming had been doing one thing, which was to survey the land, distribute grain evenly among all the mu of land, and clarify taxes.

Since the 15th year of Wanli, he started a business in Sichuan and it was thriving.

He was a very talented and law-abiding official, and he had no obvious party affiliation. If he had, he would not have been wandering around in the local area for eighteen years.

"Then let He Qiming be the Junior Prime Minister." Zhu Yijun approved the personnel transfer, and Hou Yu and Zhao You waited.

There are so many pitfalls in the court. If you don’t make progress, others will. Just wait and see.

Zhu Yijun required himself not to leave memorials overnight. After dealing with the memorials, Zhu Yijun stretched himself and then leaned lazily on the back of his chair to read various newspapers. The travel notes of Xiaoyao Yiwen in Southeast Asia were updated again.

This time, the Nanyang Travels does not preach the truth, but tells stories.

The plantation is a small closed society with strict hierarchy.

At the bottom of the social ladder were slaves and laborers. These laborers had to work for seven hours a day, starting before dawn. They received no pay for their work and only had rations that were barely enough to fill their stomachs. During the slack season, they only had potatoes stewed with beans, and they were often beaten and scolded.

Laziness whips, stealing from the master will cut off his hand.

The one who manages these slaves is the foreman, and the one who manages these foreman is the grand foreman. If you can become a foreman or a grand foreman, you can basically meet the owner of the manor.

There is a very special kind of forced labor, whose status is higher than that of ordinary slaves and equivalent to that of a foreman. They are horse herders. These horse herders are in charge of the animals. On this plantation, the treatment of cattle, horses, donkeys and mules is much better than that of slaves.

Usually Han people are hired as the headman, chief boss and horse herders. Only when there is a serious shortage of manpower will they hire foreigners, which is unsafe for the manor owner.

There is a plantation owner named Cui Shiyou on the island of Mindanao in Luzon. He is from Fujian and came from a poor family in his hometown. After going out to sea, he finally settled down on the island of Mindanao with his fellow villagers after more than ten years and owned a plantation of 10,000 acres.

Cui Shiyou was in power and was extremely cruel to his servants.

One of Cui Shiyou's good horses died of illness. Cui Shiyou was furious and killed the horseman. The horseman's son took over the position. When shoeing the horse, he deliberately missed a nail. When Cui Shiyou was traveling in a carriage, the horse stumbled, the carriage overturned, and Cui Shiyou died.

Cui Shiyou's son reported the case to the authorities, but the groom's son had already run away, and without the help of the court, there was no way to find him. The Luzon Governor's Office only accepted the case and did not arrest the groom because both the groom and his son were Han Chinese.

The Luzon Governor's Office used the Ming Dynasty Law, which only governed the Han people. Cui Shiyou killed the horse herder, and according to the Ming Dynasty Law, he should pay with his life, but the horse herder's son chose to kill him in revenge. If he was still on the plantation, the government would definitely handle it, but since he had run away, the government simply ignored it.

There is a follow-up to this incident. The son of the stable boy later became a pirate. In the 15th year of Wanli, the stable boy led 300 pirates and successively attacked seven plantations. The fire burned for six days and was only extinguished after it rained.

The groom's son was eventually wiped out by the Luzon navy.

However, since the 15th year of the Wanli reign, no landowners have ever been harsh on the Han people.

"They are all losers." Zhu Yijun finished reading this story. Lin Fucheng was unreasonable, but the final result was that most people lost.

The Governor's Office lost taxes from seven plantations, Cui Shiyou died and his family was wiped out, and the groom died, and his son became a pirate and was also wiped out by the Governor's Office.

This is a very interesting case because, according to the interpretation of the struggle file, this case objectively reflects the entire process of the birth of order.

All order in the world is born out of struggle, not morality.

If a collective, from a family to a workshop, an industry, or a dynasty, wants to continue stably for a long time, it must be able to effectively control the conflicts between the various classes within the collective within a range that does not destroy each other.

In order to achieve this control, all interests must be brought into a certain "order".

Therefore, order itself is the product of mutual struggle and compromise, rather than morality as people previously believed.

The counterattack by Cui Shiyou, the horse herder, and the horse herder's son, and the massacre of entire families on seven plantations, on the surface, were a struggle caused by the death of a horse due to illness, but in the end, the estate owners no longer criticized the Han people for their order.

Confucianism advocates that morality gives birth to order. For example, the famous unity of man and nature is a typical example of order given birth to morality. However, looking at China's long history, morality has never been able to give birth to order.

Feng Bao had already finished reading the newspaper and asked in a low voice, "Your Majesty, I am stupid. The Japanese slaves, foreign slaves, and prostitutes in the plantations were also severely criticized, and their exploitation was even more severe. Why didn't a new order emerge through struggle and compromise?"

Your Majesty's third volume is very well written and explains the various phenomena of the Ming Dynasty very well, but Your Majesty's struggle volume does not seem to be completely universal.

Cui Shiyou killed the horse herder in a fit of rage, but he did not kill too many slaves.

The stable boy’s son would rebel, but why didn’t these slaves stage a large-scale rebellion and riot to overthrow the plantation economy?

"There can be no compromise without struggle. These forced labor slaves do not even consider themselves as human beings. They only think about undermining each other and selling out others to gain benefits and status. The only way for them to have a new life is to become stronger. They are unwilling to save themselves. Do they expect gods to come down to earth?" Zhu Yijun explained this phenomenon.

Yin Zhengmao and Yin Zongxin were both supporters of the theory of "survival of the fittest". They believed that the Han people were nobler than the barbarians, and what they saw and heard continued to provide evidence of this theory of survival of the fittest. Judging from various events in Southeast Asia, these barbarians had no blood.

Without weapons and physical strength, the slaves on the plantations cannot resist. In an absolutely free world, under the influence of the invisible hand, the overall order and rules of society will develop towards squeezing out the last bit of strength from these slaves.

Two meals during the busy farming season and one meal during the slack farming season, which is potatoes stewed with beans.

Staying alive is already a great effort, and coupled with the closed environment of the island, it is very difficult for slaves to resist.

According to the theory of contradiction, where there is oppression, there is resistance, but this iron law is completely ineffective due to the ingenious institutional design of the plantation.

"Your Majesty, I think it may be because of religion and opium." Feng Bao proposed two other very specific and objective tools that hinder the birth of resistance consensus.

Religion gives people false hope and allows them to pursue the distant shore; opium corrodes people's bodies and wills and gives them short-lived and false bliss.

"What you said makes a lot of sense." Upon hearing this, Zhu Yijun nodded with certainty, confirming Feng Bao's idea.

A world of absolute freedom is a miserable world. At least during the Wanli period, this statement was true because of insufficient productivity.

In April of the eighteenth year of the Wanli reign, spring arrived in the capital. The emperor had his sixth prince. The empress gave birth to the sixth prince on the second day of April in the eighteenth year. However, the officials were worried because the palace did not send out auspicious boxes.

This means that there is a high possibility of accidents happening, which is very dangerous. All officials are afraid that if they look up, there will be a death sign above their heads.

Starting from the eldest prince Zhu Changzhi, no matter whether there were princes or princesses in the palace, a lucky box would be given to tell the court officials what the child’s name was and let everyone share in the good fortune.

This time there was clear news that the queen had given birth to a child, but no auspicious box was distributed. It was easy for people to make unwarranted associations. Zhang Juzheng wanted to ask several times, but he didn't dare to.

But soon, all the officials breathed a sigh of relief, because on April 7th, the news came out in the palace that Concubine Zhou De had given birth to the seventh prince. The court officials guessed that they would give out the silver coins together. There were two silver coins in the auspicious box, and two added together would give one, which was in line with the emperor's frugal character.

Save what you can.

But soon, the officials were worried and uneasy. Zhang Juzheng could no longer bear it and went to Tonghe Palace to ask the emperor why he hadn't issued the lucky boxes yet?

When Zhang Juzheng left Tonghe Palace, he was very relaxed. Apparently nothing unexpected had happened, but Zhang Juzheng did not explain the specific reason.

Finally, on April 15th, news came from the palace that Concubine Ran Shu had given birth to a princess.

At this point, His Majesty the Emperor finally issued the Pepsi box.

An eight-cent box filled with different dried fruits, with two silver coins placed in the middle. Put three silver coins together and you can save four silver coins on each box!
The court officials were no longer surprised by the idea of ​​frugality, as long as nothing went wrong in the palace.

The fifth prince was named Zhu Changhe, the sixth prince was named Zhu Changhong, and the sixth princess was named Zhu Xuanchan. Both the two princes and the princess were safe. There was indeed an accident. Zhu Changhe had a little jaundice, but he recovered quickly.

The person in charge of the delivery was Wu Lian, a female official from the Jiekuyuan. This senior medical officer, who was nearly 50 years old, was not only responsible for the delivery, but also for the diet and daily life of all the princes. Over the years, the children have grown up healthy and strong.

"Your Majesty's new concubine, Concubine Zhuang, is a thousand years old. According to calculations, she is about to give birth. It would be a good idea for us to tour the south. We have to tour the south!" Ling Yunyi went to the Quan Chu Guild Hall to visit Zhang Juzheng. Before talking about business, he mentioned the happy event first.

There have been many happy events this April. Gu Meisheng, who was taken into the palace by His Majesty last year, is due to give birth in May. Four children were born in one southern tour!
On weekdays, His Majesty is busy with state affairs. He has quite a few children, but they are definitely not numerous. His Majesty only has free time when he goes on a southern tour.

"The next southern tour will be in the 22nd year of Wanli." Zhang Juzheng did not hide Ling Yunyi's intention. The emperor's southern tour would become a long-term system, not a temporary whim. He would make a southern tour even if there was nothing to do. This was inevitable after the opening of the sea.

The Huangpu River Palace was built so magnificently just to welcome the emperor.

"Yuan Fu, I came here this time because of the Beijing-Guangzhou Highway. The people in Huguang need close cooperation. I'm just a little worried that I can't convince them by writing a letter myself." Ling Yunyi explained the purpose of coming to the Quanchu Guild Hall this time.

He needed Zhang Juzheng's help to coordinate relations in Huguang, which was Zhang Juzheng's hometown and the stronghold of the Chu Party.

"That's a good idea. It just so happens that the construction of the highway requires the mobilization of a large number of laborers. We can implement the farming system in Huguang as well." Zhang Juzheng agreed and put forward conditions.

The Huguang area was not resisting the construction of the highway, but after a large number of laborers were drawn up, the problem arose as to who would farm the land. The farming system became the solution to the problem.

"That's easy." Ling Yunyi agreed immediately. Where there is a conflict of interest, there will be struggle. Where there is a struggle, there will be compromise between the two parties, and ultimately a result that is acceptable to all parties will be reached.

The Yingtian System was a compromise of the Yuantian System and centralized agricultural production. The laborers who built the highway did not farm but ate grain. Without centralized production, it was impossible to provide sufficient agricultural surplus to complete the construction of the highway.

"Recently, some places in Zhejiang, Nanya, and Songjiang Prefecture hope that the court will allow them to build universities. I wonder how the prime minister thinks we should deal with it?" Ling Yunyi talked about the debate about the Dinghai school system.

The idea of ​​establishing a private university has actually been proposed since the Royal Institute of Technology was completed, but the court's direction has never been clear enough.

"I agree with their idea. This is the case with more than 200 academies in Jiangxi, such as the Bai Lu Dong Academy. But the problem is that these academies are a bit too expensive, and almost all of these students are in debt," said Zhang Juzheng with a frown.

The Bai Lu Dong Academy in Jiangxi set an extremely high threshold. It cost 120 silver coins to study in the Imperial University for four years. With an interest-free loan of 60 silver coins subsidized by the court, plus tuition fees from the government, it was completely affordable for a middle-class family.

However, the Bai Lu Dong Academy required sixty silver coins a year, and two hundred and forty silver coins for four years. There was no interest-free loan, no tuition fee, and one even had to buy a residence near the academy to live in, otherwise there was no way to register as a student.

This type of business-style academy caused many problems. Studying in Jiangxi was more expensive than studying in other places, so much so that some gentry in Jiangxi began to migrate to Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places.

In Zhang Juzheng's view, the emergence of commercial academies was artificially creating class barriers. He thought about banning more than 200 academies in Jiangxi in the name of rectifying education, but ultimately did not take action. He decided to wait and see whether private education could become an important supplement to official education.

"If we allow these academies to grow so wildly, it may not be a good thing. If the court takes action too late, the problem in Jiangxi will probably be very serious." Ling Yunyi expressed his opinion that the court should control these private academies. At the very least, it should not be so expensive.

Zhang Juzheng asked with some doubt: "Ling Cifu thinks that the court needs to intervene?"

"North Korea is a lesson for us." Ling Yunyi explained why he felt that it was necessary to take action. If not, Jiangxi's development would stagnate or even regress.

Because Ling Yunyi had seen in North Korea that the civil and military classes set up Sungkyunkwan not to provide people with a place to study, but to completely monopolize education.

The poor and coolies used Hangul, meat eaters used Chinese, and the pharmacopoeia, laws, and regulations were all written in Chinese. After the complete class barriers were formed, two distinct worlds emerged.

In Ling Yunyi's opinion, all acts that deliberately create class barriers should be cracked down on.

Zhang Juzheng thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "What you said makes sense, but how to manage it and to what extent is another difficult problem."

Ling Yunyi took out a memorial, handed it to Zhang Juzheng and said, "I have some ideas. The court should take care of it. First of all, the Dinghai school system must be implemented."

"On the one hand, the Dinghai school system was implemented, and on the other hand, the extremely high thresholds of these academies were restricted."

“For example, cancel the requirement to purchase a student residence permit and strictly limit the interest on student debts. The interest rate should be at least 4% per annum, instead of the current common 30%. If the interest is compounded, you will have to pay it back for the rest of your life after you graduate from the academy. This cannot be allowed.”

Ling Yunyi took out a memorial, which contained some of his supplements to the Dinghai school system.

Private academies can make money, but they cannot be profit-driven.

(End of this chapter)