Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 545: If one of our own people embezzles money, does that count?

Zhang Tingen was actually more concerned about internal affairs, so after Jia Lian finished speaking, he expressed his own views.

"Ever since the King of Xining sent troops to Anxi under the pretext of gathering the rebels from the various tribes in Anxi, millions of people from Shaanxi and Gansu have migrated to the Western Regions every year. Among them, Li Qing made great efforts during his tenure in Shaanxi and Gansu to please his superiors. He has selfish motives in supporting the restoration of Anxi! If it weren't for the fact that I kept a close eye on the Ministry of Personnel, the officials of Shaanxi and Gansu would have received high evaluations every year. Of course, there is the court's care for the officials of Shaanxi and Gansu, but more of it is Li Rushui's personal cultivation of his followers. Now, in my opinion, the most important thing is the promotion of the reform. Li Rushui supports it on the surface, but secretly instructs the local authorities to hinder it."

When Jia Lian heard this, he felt that Zhang Tingen seemed to be making some subjective assumptions, so he asked cautiously, "Do you have any clear evidence for what you said?"

Zhang Tingen rolled his eyes. "Why keep him in the cabinet for the New Year when there is evidence? He had been impeached long ago. He was the one who recommended talents to Henan Province. Your Majesty believed his lies."

Jia Lian asked thoughtfully: "From the results, Li Xiang was also implicated because he recommended inappropriate talents."

"Buqi, you only know one side of the story. After Liang Daoyuan retired, the Xinxue school was basically incorporated into Li Rushui's school, and together with the Qingyun school, there were many followers in the south and the north. Let me ask, why do these people support Li Qing? Of course, they support him because it is profitable." Zhang Tingen felt that Jia Lian was too insensitive. What evidence is needed for such a thing? It depends on who benefits from the result.

Jia Lian did not ask what Emperor Chenghui's attitude was, because he knew him too well and knew that he would definitely take a moderate and balanced attitude.

As for the emperor, even if Zhang Ting'en was the chief minister, he was unwilling to see the cabinet united. Therefore, his indulgence of Li Qing was easy to understand.

As for Li Qing, Jia Lian could see from his experience at Qingyun Academy that he was very purposeful in doing things and valued interests.

How to say it, anyone in any era who wants to achieve something according to his or her own will must first sit in a position where you can express your will and have others listen to you.

It's like running a business, you have to be the boss of the business first.

Therefore, the fundamental issue is the contradiction between focusing on internal governance or external expansion.

After the financial problem was solved, the urgency of internal governance for Emperor Chenghui was not as strong as before, so this gave Li Qing an opportunity.

Although Emperor Chenghui did not express his opinion, his personal inclination was obvious.

"I think there is no contradiction between the inside and the outside. Why do you have to argue about who is right or wrong?" Jia Lian decided to persuade him, hoping that he could follow the emperor's pace.

"As a teacher, I know the benefits of external expansion, but the benefits of external expansion have not fallen on the common people. Take Southeast Asia as an example. Foreign trade did promote the export of tea, raw silk and porcelain, but in the end 90% of the profits went to merchants, and the remaining 10% was shared by the people, which was very little. Moreover, the money spent by the court on external expansion was not recovered. The focus on internal governance does not invest much, but it can indeed benefit the people. Take the example of the land tax distribution. Once it is successfully implemented, the grassroots officials and gentry will have fewer exorbitant taxes and fees, and the burden on the people will be significantly reduced."

Jia Lian remained silent after hearing this. Zhang Tingen sighed and said, "Master, I know it's difficult and the results are slow. It's not as good as external expansion. The soldiers are looking forward to making achievements when they can see the expansion of territory."

Is what Zhang Ting'en said right? Yes, but not entirely. At least it is right in the short term. But what about in the long term?
The Song and Ming dynasties after the Tang Dynasty lacked the motivation for external expansion for a long time. It was not only a system problem, but also a problem of benefits. First of all, whether the conquered land is suitable for farming. If it is not suitable for farming, it cannot be defended. Secondly, the direction of foreign trade has changed. During the Tang Dynasty, the benefits gained from the Silk Road drove the empire to develop westward to protect the trade route. In the Song Dynasty, more Arab merchants came from the sea, and the birth of the Maritime Silk Road was the reason for the lack of endogenous motivation for land expansion.

The Song Dynasty was a weakling, so we won’t mention it. The Ming Dynasty only took back Hexi, and they were able to hold it because of the existence of Hetao.

Many things are essentially economic issues. The Ming Dynasty gave up Annan and the great situation opened up by Zheng He. Were the people of the Ming Dynasty stupid?

Not really!
Zhu Di made money to raise military expenses for the Northern Expedition. He brought back so much pepper that he used it to pay salaries. The people actually did not get much benefit. If you don't share the profits with me while you spend the treasury's money on sailing, then I'll just cut off this road. Anyway, if you stay at home, there will be sea merchants coming to buy goods, which will not delay making money at all. He even promoted a maritime ban, because the maritime ban did not affect foreign trade. With a long coastline, it was too easy to smuggle. Smuggling did not require taxation, and as long as the officials on the coast did their job well, they could make more money.

Zhu Yuanzhang's system had many problems, and none of the subsequent emperors, except Zhu Di, had the ability to change it. The problem was that Zhu Di came to power illegitimately, so how could he dare to change the system left by his father?

There is another problem that Zhang Tingen may have overlooked or deliberately left unsaid. That is, even if the land tax is implemented, and there is no unified tax system for gentry, the grassroots gentry still have many ways to transfer payments, letting the lower-level people bear more. Of course, it does not mean that reform is unnecessary. Anyway, it is almost the same whether it is changed or not, so just keep it rotten.

Reform is still necessary. At least in Jia Lian's view, it is very necessary to distribute the land tax according to the amount of land, because this policy can improve the stability of the court's rule for at least ten years.

It is said that there are countermeasures to every policy. It takes time and practice to come up with countermeasures to policies.

(PS: Let me tell you a term that may be unfamiliar to you: retention funds.)
To sum up, the reason why Jia Lian is keen on external expansion is very clear. In the era of the emperor's centralized power, the role of internal governance is actually not very large, but external expansion is different. While it is effective quickly, it can also obtain more land resources. To put it bluntly, even if there is an invasion by foreign enemies, external expansion can also increase the depth of defense.

A hundred years later, or two hundred years later, if the entire South China Sea is the inland sea of ​​the Central Plains dynasty and Central Asia is also within the territory, why would we still need to worry about resource shortages?
Rather than reforming under tremendous internal pressure, it would be better to increase the intensity of external expansion.

It is said that the Han Dynasty fell because of its strength. First of all, you have to be strong. If you are not strong, you will be like the Song Dynasty, where anyone can shit on you. There are always people on the Internet saying how great the Song Dynasty was. Go check the official statistics on the number of civil rebellions.

Is the civil governance of the Song Dynasty really as good as some people on the Internet say?

If you are not good at civil administration or military affairs, you are left with only a scholar. Even if you are a scholar, you must pass the imperial examination. If you fail the imperial examination, you are just an ordinary citizen. Then you will be called Hua Shi Gang by Zhao Ji.

Jia Lian knew that he could not persuade Zhang Tingen because he was a man of strong will. He could only remind him indirectly, hoping that he would not go against the emperor's will and follow the old path of Fang Baiyi and Kong Zhao.

It is true that these two are more concerned with the interests of the gentry throughout the country, while Zhang Tingen really hopes to reduce the burden on the lower classes.

"Master, you have to see that since the empire started a new round of expansion, a large number of people have migrated outward, which has brought about changes. There is a lack of tenants, so landlords will naturally treat tenants well, otherwise no one will farm. Not to mention the distant past, in recent years, a large number of people from Zhili have left the country, and the treatment of civilian tenants has improved significantly. After a large number of Shandong immigrants crossed the sea to the east, the contradictions between landlords and tenants are no longer fierce, and the overall situation is developing in a stable direction. If the court had not stopped him, the King of Dongping could have attracted more people to leave the country. Now he has to buy people from Korea and Japan to open up land in the north. This indirectly increased the trade volume with these two vassal states."

Jia Lian was trying to persuade Zhang Tingen with all his heart. Zhang Tingen was silent for a long time and said, "It can't cure the root cause!" Jia Lian was a little angry after hearing this: "If you want to cure the root cause, then kill all the landlords in the world and distribute the land to all the people. Can you do it, Master? If you can't, don't talk about curing the root cause. If you have the energy, you might as well think about how to rectify the administration of officials and severely punish corrupt officials. The key is to crack down on those officials who collude with the gentry and make up excuses to grab the land."

Zhang Ting'en listened to another long silence, and finally sighed: "You don't have any good ideas, it seems that there is really no fundamental solution."

Jia Lian wanted to say that he had a way, but he didn't say it. People can't and shouldn't revolutionize themselves. Shameless is shameless, double standards are double standards, I am like this.

"How could a student have such great ability? My dear teacher thinks too highly of me."

It was already dusk when they left Zhang's house. The reason why Jia Lian did not stay for dinner was very simple. He realized that Zhang Tingen actually wanted to compromise, but he just didn't have the confidence.

After the two men's communication, Zhang Tingen had made a decision. On the issue of foreign expansion, he would obey the emperor's will, rather than suggesting reducing investment in foreign expansion from a financial perspective.

Well, Jia Lian didn’t know whether Zhang Tingen had had any disputes with the emperor before, because there was no information indicating this.

I hope the emperor will not abandon the policy of equalizing the land tax because of the failure in Henan. If so, then the result of my great efforts in Sun Huazhen's case is nothing more than for the dignity and respectability of the court.

After returning home, Jia Lian finally saw Xiangling. The girl looked much more haggard, which made people feel pity for her.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one else was around, Jia Lian was very affectionate with Xiangling. Xiangling's eyes were confused and her mind was blurred. When she was about to do something, she heard the voice of Wang Xifeng speaking from outside.

"Where is your father?"

The maidservant at the gate was afraid of Wang Xifeng's power and answered hastily, "She is in the study with Sister Xiangling."

The two of them let go, and Xiangling stumbled to her room. Jia Lian crossed his legs and faced the door, watching Wang Xifeng appear in a hurry.

"Why do you come here in person?" Jia Lian took the initiative to speak. Wang Xifeng paused for a moment before stepping over the threshold.

"Several New Year gifts have been sent over. Bring the list to me, old man." Wang Xifeng explained carefully. Jia Lian's status is now higher than Wang Ziteng's, so she dare not disrespect him.

Jia Lian took the gift list and looked at it. Well, every official in the Research and Development Department who was promoted by Jia Lian received a New Year gift, and a New Year gift from the government office. In contrast, the Wucheng Military Department only received a New Year gift from the government office. There was also a New Year gift from Li Heng as a disciple. And even though Li Yuan was not there, the palace still sent a New Year gift. Li Dong and Lin Ping, although they were officials outside, also received New Year gifts.

There was a thick pile of gift lists, and Jia Lian slowly looked at the names under the light. There were Jia Yucun, Fang Song, etc. Jia Lian was not familiar with many of the names, but he still gave New Year gifts to all of them.

There was another letter at the bottom, which was actually written by Jia Yucun. The letter mentioned Jia Lian's fief in Anshan, saying that the population there was too small, and he could help hire a group of people from Korea to help with farming.

The reason why Jia Yucun was so attentive was soon hinted in the letter. He had achieved excellent political results every year during his years in Liaodong, and he felt that he did not deserve Jia Lian's promotion.

Jia Lian's idea for the land in Anshan was simple: just send someone to look after it. The Jia family had no shortage of such people, but they had to be wary of him using the Jia family's name to cause trouble. There was no rush to develop it.

As for Jia Yucun's suggestion, Jia Lian could only temporarily say that he could do nothing to help. The population of Liaodong had dropped sharply, and that was the fault of the Prince of Dongping. In any case, Jia Lian would not think of hiring people from Korea.

In principle, Jia Lian would rather migrate people from the inland to the northeast, so after reading the letter, he immediately wrote back to Jia Yucun, thanking him for his kindness and saying that as for the problem of insufficient population in the fiefdom, he could just recruit more people the next time there was a disaster, and there was no need to rush.

As she was writing, Wang Xifeng spoke up, "The gift from Jia Yucun is very expensive. The gold alone is five hundred taels, five hundred pieces of top-quality leather, and ginseng and oriental pearls, all in a large box."

When Jia Lian heard this, he stopped writing, looked up at Wang Xifeng and said nothing.

Wang Xifeng saw his unfriendly look and smiled apologetically: "Master is busy, I will go outside to take a look. You don't know that the people below will dare to be cunning and not work properly if they are careless."

As the wind came, so the wind left. After Wang Xifeng left, Jia Lian continued to reply. He mentioned in the letter that there were too few vacancies above the fourth rank, so he had to wait for an opportunity. There was no strong necessity for a horizontal transfer to another place. What Jia Lian did not say in the letter was that Shanhaiguan was a lucrative place, and there were not many fourth rank positions that were more lucrative than Shanhaiguan. Wouldn't it be better for you to save more money? In the future, if there was a vacancy for the third rank, you had to spend money to operate it, but you had to have enough money first.

Corruption or something like that, if it’s one’s own people who commit corruption, is that called corruption?

Look at Jia Lian since he took office. Whenever he had to get rid of someone, it was never because of corruption.

With the current crappy system, there is not a single official in the entire court who is not corrupt.

Even if Jia Lian rebels and becomes emperor in the future, will the brothers who followed him to build the empire follow him in rebellion just because they are so poor that they have to eat porridge?

What a fuss!

(End of this chapter)