At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 722: The ruler’s awareness and not coming in vain

For the Han leaders outside Gaoling, they had originally placed high hopes on the pilot project, hoping to find a new path for the Han Dynasty from the pilot project. But the current chaos was not what they expected.

The pilot test is an unprecedented exam. If the full score is 100, he expects to get 90 points, and it would be even better if he could get 95 points or above.

Xu Aimin didn't think that his request was too high. The big man's usual performance was at least 70 or 80 points. Now he had given the pilot area such good conditions and treatment, provided financial support, and mobilized elite troops.

But the reality is that, let alone 90 or 95 points, it is far inferior to the ordinary counties of the Han Dynasty. If he were to score based on what he saw, he would barely get 65 points, which is slightly higher than the passing line. But the gap between this and his expectations is too big. Not to mention the 30-point gap. But you shouldn't give you good conditions and still go down.

Xu Fan smiled calmly and said, "Making mistakes is also a process of growth. The people have learned lessons and gained experience. They know that there is no free welfare benefit from the sky. Everything they enjoy is earned through their own labor. The people know how to exercise their rights. You should not blame the people of Gaoling. Although this road is tortuous, it is the general trend."

The industrial age will require more and more managers and participants, and imperial rule will become increasingly incompatible with the times. It may not be noticeable at normal times, but when it reaches the limit, imperial society is most likely to collapse.

Just look at how many monarchies collapsed due to the brutal war consumption during World War I. A large number of crowns fell, and the republican countries, which were originally scarce, began to become the mainstream.

After World War II, countries that were still constitutional monarchies became outliers. To be honest, those remaining constitutional monarchies should thank the atomic bomb.

Although the atomic bomb has maintained world peace, it has also greatly weakened the power of war, the cleaning machine of civilization. If there are a few more world wars, the so-called feudal monarchy will be completely cleared out.

Xu Aimin said with a hint of anger: "The tuition is not cheap. They spent five years' worth of money in one year."

Xu Aimin is not like Xu Fan, a well-informed person at the bottom of history. He does not take such things seriously. He sincerely hopes that this pilot will be successful, but it is obvious that the current situation of this pilot makes him very dissatisfied.

At this time, Liu Chang, who was driving, also said, "Your Majesty, please don't blame me for being too talkative. When there are many people, they have all kinds of ideas. The current situation is inevitable. A family with a thousand people and one person in charge can have real order in this way."

Xu Fan said: "Your statement is suitable for the previous world, but not for the current world. Moreover, the tuition fees paid by the common people are just money at most, but if other classes pay tuition fees, it may not be money."

This is the disadvantage of Xu Fan using cheats. Under his suppression, the bloodiness of capital in this world is less than one percent, or even one thousandth, of that in history. All classes of the Han people have insufficient understanding of capital. They think it is a vegetarian panda, but they don't know that it is a tiger that devours human lives. No, it should be said that it is a devil that brings disaster.

When capital comes into this world, every pore of it is bloody. In order to make money, businessmen will drive ten-year-old children into factories and let them work themselves to death within three years. Those capitalists are even proud of it, saying that their competitors cannot compete with them because they work the children to death within five years.

The potato blight killed millions of Irish people. In the year of the disaster, for their own profit, they shipped grain from the disaster area to other places for sale, and restricted the transportation of grain from other countries to the disaster area, making them continue to pay for this sin hundreds of years later. The three small island countries will continue to split, but this is also their own fault. It's their fault that their ancestors were not human beings.

Not to mention the slave trade, which killed hundreds of millions of people and exterminated tens of millions of indigenous people in Yinzhou. The description of the devil in any historical novel is more than one-tenth of these people, and their crimes are less than one percent.

As for the other group of people, their situation was not much better. There were countless cases of people dying of starvation due to famine, and the countless bones were their tuition fees.

Xu Fan understood these things, so he was extremely tolerant of the fact that the people of Gaoling spent five times the financial resources. It was just a little more money, and it was nothing serious except life and death. There was no difference between paying this tuition fee and not paying it at all.

At this time, there was a traffic jam on the main road of Gaoling County, which made Liu Chang puzzled. It was okay that there was a traffic jam in Chang'an, but why was there a traffic jam in Gaoling as well?

He immediately waved his hand, and more than a dozen people got off the surrounding cars and surrounded the electric bike that Xu Fan and his companions were riding in.

At the same time, Liu Chang ordered two people to check the situation.

Not long after, the two came back and reported: "There are people marching and demonstrating ahead, so the road is blocked."

Xu Aimin was surprised and said, "Today is not a weekend, and it's still morning, how come there are people protesting?"

It is very common for the Han people to hold demonstrations, but in order not to affect the normal production and living order, everyone will hold demonstrations during the weekends unless it is too urgent. Even if the craftsmen do not want to wait, they will generally hold demonstrations after get off work. This is considered a tacit understanding among everyone.

You have the right to hold demonstrations, but others also have the right to live and work normally. Demonstrations should not interfere with other people's lives and work.

The demonstrations in Dahan have now evolved into a place for expressing political views and gatherings, with certain social attributes. After all, the people of Dahan are not like cattle and horses in another world. They have plenty of time to do these things.

"It's the Han officials from Gaoling who are demonstrating!"

Xu Fan was interested when he heard this and said, "I have to go and see what's going on."

"Gaoling Han Li?" Xu Aimin was also incredulous. This kind of situation rarely happens. It usually only happens when there is a reduction in the number of staff. However, due to the purge, Gaoling Han Li has been expanding in the past two years. How could there be people marching and demonstrating? He also wanted to understand what was going on.

"Go and see!"

So Chief Liu ordered someone to bring two wheelchairs to push Xu Fan and Xu Aimin forward.

"We should have our own privacy rights. We are also citizens of the Han Dynasty!"

"Equal pay for equal work, we do not agree to reduce salaries."

"I have shed blood for the court, I have been injured for the people, the court cannot treat me like this!" A Han official shouted slogans and suddenly took off his shirt. There were several gunshot wounds on it. It was obvious that this Han official was very lucky to survive.

The people around were originally watching the parade with gloating, but when they saw the injuries on the Han official's body, they began to show expressions of shame.

Xu Aimin stared at the scene in amazement. Hundreds of Han officials surrounded the county magistrate's office holding various signs to fight for their rights.

Soon Liu Chang found out the whole story.

The entire Gaoling County Han officials went on strike under the leadership of Gaoling County Magistrate Shi Qing. The reason for their strike was very simple. The Hundred Industries Conference had formulated many laws that were unfavorable to them, and they were unwilling to accept them so they simply went on strike.

Originally, Gaoling became a pilot project for the Han Dynasty, and the Han officials of the nine counties were overjoyed. As long as this pilot project succeeded, it would be a huge political achievement, and future promotions would be smooth. But they never expected that the first of the three fires of a new official taking office was to burn them.

Many things that Shi Qing and his men did not consider to be crimes, such as assigning projects to their own people and calculating the project prices higher so that they could earn more, or selling the court's inferior assets to their own people. This could be considered as helping the court to reduce its burden, and their own people helping the court to do things and making money by the way. This was already an unspoken rule of the Han Dynasty. Even the Supreme Court and the Imperial Censorate did not care about such things.

The Han Dynasty had lived like this for many years. No one brought this up. As a result, Gongsun Hong, a cruel official, used this incident as an excuse to sweep across the nine counties of Gaoling. Half of the Han officials were dismissed and exiled, so that the Han officials in Gaoling County hated Gongsun Hong. This cruel official wanted to advance, but he used their future as a stepping stone. Is he still a human being? This first fire had already made them wail, but soon the second fire came.

Gaoling tried to establish a Hundred Industries Congress on a trial basis, allowing the common people to supervise their administration, but this brought them bad luck. There were few people in the first place, and the people in the Hundred Industries Congress had no experience in governing, so they often thought of one thing and that was it, and changing their orders every day was the norm.

Moreover, they do not care about their rights at all. They think that government offices should be open 24 hours a day. Other institutions should also adapt to the people's off-get off work hours. They should not be unable to find them when they are needed.

Well, the craftsmen didn't work in three shifts, but the Han officials had to work in three shifts, and they had to work the night shift every other week.

Working overtime was the norm, and their working hours were not protected at all. The salary did not increase much, but the workload increased several times. The Han officials in Gaoling County experienced the life of being treated like cattle and horses.

The people adapted to power very quickly, especially the people in Guanzhong. Everyone was a politician among the people. In the teahouses and taverns of the Han Dynasty, they discussed the global situation from a high vantage point. They also discussed the gains and losses of the Han Dynasty's political affairs.

The officials in the court are nothing but insects. If I were to rule the world, I would surely be able to restore the prosperity of the Han Dynasty.

In the past, people could only vent their thoughts and opinions about the court in pubs, but in the pilot area, they finally had the opportunity to put them into practice.

Once they have power, they can issue orders. In the past, they could only curse the Han officials in secret but had no way to do anything about them. But now they can do so.

Many private politicians took their own proposals and managed to gather signatures from more than 1000 people, so many of the private suggestions were actually passed by the Hundred Industries Conference.

Among them, the one that received the most signatures and the highest support was the "Regulations on the Disclosure of Property of Han Officials."

This decree was first implemented in the tax supervision order. The effect is visible to everyone.

The people of the Han Dynasty have always wanted to extend this decree to the entire Han official group. Unfortunately, although there is a strong call for it every year, it has never been passed at the Sages' Conference.

Even Xu Fan did not force this point. The Han people's execution and organization were not up to the requirement. Even if it was passed by force, the decree would be shelved. A decree that could not be enforced would only make people laugh.

But the people of Gaoling County didn't care about all this. Less than half a year after the pilot program, Gaoling's Hundred Industries Conference passed the "Regulations on the Disclosure of Property of Han Officials" with almost unanimous votes.

As long as they are Han officials in the nine counties of Gaoling, they must disclose their property, and the property of their parents, wives and children must also be disclosed. It is also stipulated that the parents, wives and children of local Han officials are not allowed to do business, etc., which have an influence on restricting the rights of Han officials. If you don't want to disclose it, you can just resign and leave Gaoling County.

The Han officials engaging in business was one of the great social contradictions of the Han Dynasty. When Xu Fan was the emperor, in order to support the princes in their expansion, he also had to find ways to help them sort out their business. What Xu Fan wanted at the time was to let the princes speed up their overseas expansion.

But if Xu Fan dared to make a hole, he could poke a hole along this hole.

Since the princes can engage in business, the nobles who stay in the Han Dynasty should always enjoy the same treatment. Therefore, people like Ji Xin are not only the Duke of the Han Dynasty, but also a general of the Han Dynasty, and one of the largest merchants in the Han Dynasty. The trinity has a huge influence in the military, politics, and business circles.

If the nobles of the Han Dynasty can do this, there is no reason why we Han officials cannot do this.

In addition, in order to protect the interests of the lower-class farmers, Xu Fan did not allow private land annexation and liked to exchange factories for nobles' fiefs. As a result, it became a trend for the nobles and officials of the Han Dynasty to open factories. The nobles and officials of the Han Dynasty became the upstream of the industry and squeezed the wealth of the entire society.

If we use one word to accurately describe the Han people today, it would be feudal aristocratic capitalism.

The nobles and princes still controlled the power and wealth of the Han Dynasty. They were more equal than others.

Faced with this situation, the merchants of the Han Dynasty had a headache. Although they could be considered big fish in the business world and could eat other small fish, these noble Han officials were sharks that could swallow them in one gulp.

They could only endure that the nobles would eat first in any profitable industry, and they could only eat some leftovers, hard bones, etc. Even many big businessmen were the white gloves of these princes and nobles, making money for them.

As for the common people of the Han Dynasty, they hated this situation as well. The nobles were all engaged in big business and looked down on their mere petty gains, but the local petty officials lived off these melons and two dates.

Even though the markets, engineering, real estate, sand and gravel, brick factories and other industries that are guaranteed to generate income are dominated by local tycoons, the locals are jealous and envious, but can do nothing about it.

Now the pilot project has given them an opportunity. Local small and medium-sized businesses and wealthy families suddenly find that they can use the power in their hands to drive out the powerful people who originally monopolized local interests and swallow this piece of fat meat themselves.

With common interests and common hatred, people from all walks of life in Gaoling County began to mobilize.

Businessmen spent money to promote the benefits of the "Han Li Property Disclosure Ordinance", saying that it is open and transparent, curbs corruption, and limits collusion between officials and businessmen. In short, this law is good for everyone and benefits the country and the people.

The urban middle class also hopes that Han officials will be more transparent and decisions will be more open, so that they can also have a chance to benefit from it.

After less than a month of publicity, this decree became the consensus of Gaoling County society. Representatives of various industries quickly reached a consensus and formulated the "Han Officials' Property Disclosure Decree".

The Han officials in Gaoling had to grit their teeth and swallow it into the cave.

But Shi Qing and other Han officials never expected that the Hundred Industries Conference would have a third fire. Last year's fiscal deficit was not huge, even though they have reduced welfare benefits. But some things have not been reduced, such as the coverage of compulsory education, which still retains primary and secondary schools, and medical benefits of up to 400 coins a year, so that the people of Gaoling can get medical services.

So although Gaoling County's finances were reduced, they were still more than twice as much as at the beginning, barely maintaining the balance of income and expenditure of Gaoling County. But don't forget that they had already owed more than ten billion yuan the previous year, and this money obviously had to be repaid.

The Han Dynasty's finances have always been about balancing revenues and expenditures. In order to limit the reckless spending of local Han officials, counties with debts not only did not receive any financial transfers at the Sages' Conference, but they were also not even included in national projects, forcing them to spend within their means.

As a result, after a period of discussion at the All Industries Conference, the decision was to reduce the salaries of Han officials in order to reduce expenses.

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Xu Aimin looked at his father worriedly and said, "Dad, take care of yourself. Don't get too excited."

Xu Aimin was confused. This was not a good thing no matter how you looked at it. Why was his father so happy?
Liu Chang was even more puzzled. Gaoling was in such a mess that it could be said that the court's pilot project had completely failed. Why was the emperor still happy?
He even felt a little sympathy for Shi Qing. After decades of struggle, he finally became a county magistrate, and was lucky enough to become the county magistrate of a pilot area. He should have had a successful career, but a lot of blame was thrown on his head. Given the current situation, the pilot project could not be considered his political achievement, but rather a stain on him.

(End of this chapter)