Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 192: I am among you, and you are among me!
Zhu Biao's face was as black as ink.

He looked at Xia Zhibai and asked, "How did you come up with that?"

Xia Zhibai shrugged and said calmly, "Jiangnan's economy is more prosperous, and the integration of officials and businessmen is more obvious. The conservative gentry in Jiangnan is so interested in it, naturally because it is profitable. In addition, Li Sheng was arrogant at the time and felt that staying in the Jingdu Salt Industry was a bit of an insult to him. If I were a gentry in Jiangnan, I would also want to give it a try."

"First, we need to get the blueprints of the steam engine and see the impact on the Jiangnan region."

"Secondly, they used this as a target to warn me not to be too complacent and to stop me from reaching out to the south."

"Besides, they just want to use this to enrich themselves."

"in addition."

"After Li Sheng's accident, they will continue to take action, because the Ming Dynasty implemented a semi-rationing system, and the annual salt and iron were fixed. Therefore, the actual salt production in Jiangnan was also limited. After the salt enterprises were established, they would naturally take over the production."

"If I were them."

"As a greedy official."

"I will hand over the salt production to the salt enterprises, but I will not let them produce it. Instead, I will hand it over to the salt enterprises outside. In this way, the salt enterprises will not start production. The salt enterprises in Jiangnan are different from the Jiangdu Salt Industry. They belong to the court, which means the court has to spend money to support them."

"The salt permit system implemented by the Ming Dynasty."

“Salt companies are only qualified to produce salt, not to sell it.”

"The salt tax collected by the court will not be reduced, but in fact, salt companies have no orders and cannot operate normally. Without output, there is no income, and local salt companies will always be in a loss-making situation."

“Then the local officials will submit a petition saying that the salt enterprise is a loss-making business and the court should not continue.”

"At the same time, they told the court that business was not something the court should do, but should be handed over to merchants. After looking at some of the salt companies' data, the court was easily deceived and sold the salt companies at low prices. The iron and steam engines provided by the court to the local areas were all bought cheaply by the 'merchants'. After being bought by the merchants, these merchants took the salt production orders from the government and started working at full capacity. Everything seemed to be getting better."

"but"

"The stove owners who were used were abandoned."

"In Liangzhe, Lianghuai and other places in the south of the Yangtze River, the number of salt farmers is indeed as high as hundreds of thousands, but the salt enterprises can only employ a hundred thousand people at most. This means that hundreds of thousands of people have become unemployed. Because they have no land, they can only become farmhands or slaves."

"Kyoto Salt Industry is well-managed."

"But the salt companies in Jiangnan are not like that. They are taking advantage of the imperial court."

"I gave you these examples from the perspective of the salt industry to tell you that if the local government really wants to take advantage of it, there are ways to do it, but with the current capabilities of the court, it is simply not able to supervise it. Even if the court finds out in the future and kills many people in Jiangnan, what is the use?"

"Does the imperial court really have the courage to take drastic measures?"

"As time goes by, the situation will become more and more difficult. By then, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River will unite, there will be millions of canal workers, as well as smuggling in the northern border and collusion with Japanese merchants along the coast. All these will gradually expand."

"The current understanding of the economy of the Ming Dynasty is distorted. It relies on one leg to walk. Once it is coerced or controlled by others, it has no countermeasures at all, and it does not even have the opportunity to adjust."

"The Ming Dynasty must leave itself a backup option."

"Otherwise, when the termites spread all over the body, Daming won't be able to move at all."

"Because it's all about profit, if you make a move, you'll be accused of 'millions of grain transport workers', if you make a move, you'll be accused of 'losing the country', and the money the court collects from the locals will get less and less. In order to maintain the normal operation of the court, it will eventually have to collect taxes from the people. When the people can't survive, it's time for them to rise up."

“The world has always been like this.”

Zhu Biao was silent.

His face turned a little pale.

Xia Zhibai's words made him a little panicked.

Because the ministers of the Ming Dynasty were really capable of doing these things.

Otherwise, in the Guo Huan case, more than 20 million shi of grain would not have been recovered, which was nearly the annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty.

And Xia Zhibai said something very right.

The Ming Dynasty cannot walk on one leg.

There has to be a way out.

Otherwise, once they were coerced, they would have no other options but to let it go and become a coward, hoping that the world could hold out for a little longer. But how long could the Ming Dynasty hold out like that? How long could it last?
Zhu Biao didn't know.

But he knew that the Ming Dynasty could not do that.

a long time.

Zhu Biao raised his head.

There was a helpless smile in his eyes.

Xia Zhibai's eloquence was still so amazing that with just a few words he could make what he said irrefutable.

He looked at Xia Zhibai deeply and sighed, "Tell me, what ideas have you thought of and what do you want to do?"

Xia Zhibai smiled and said, "If the Ming Dynasty wants to truly govern the world well, it must reduce the power of the vassal states. At present, the Northern Yuan Dynasty is still in existence, so the military vassal states naturally cannot be reduced, but the economic vassal states must be reduced. Otherwise, if the Jiangnan Group is allowed to grow, it will sooner or later dominate the government and no one can control it."

"But to reduce the power of the vassal states, we cannot just reduce them."

"There are many people in Jiangnan, and with convenient waterways, trade is smooth."

"It is difficult to achieve substantial results by imposing heavy taxes or cracking down on business. Instead, it will increase the dissatisfaction of the Jiangnan region with the court. Therefore, if the court wants to reduce the economic vassal, it must develop the north, or revitalize the economy of other regions in the world, so that Jiangnan will not be the only dominant region."

“Break the fence of Jiangnan economy!”

"The simplest way at the moment is to open sea transportation." "It will provide a more convenient way for economic exchanges between the north and the south."

"However, this method, for now, will only benefit the South unilaterally. The South's goods will also be dumped in the North, crowding the North's market. Therefore, relying solely on sea transportation is obviously not enough. The court has not yet made up its mind. To befriend the Northern Yuan, or even to want to befriend it, will cost a lot."

“I don’t want to do that right now.”

"The salt market and coal factory in the north will definitely open."

“And textile factories.”

"I came back this time to make a textile machine and promote it in the north. The north is sparsely populated, and land is less scarce than in the south. There are more fields to grow other cash crops. This is the advantage of the north."

“So the North’s strengths right now are coal, iron, and textiles.”

“But that’s still not enough.”

"And with the emergence of Jiangnan salt enterprises, the living space of the stove households will inevitably be squeezed. By then, hundreds of thousands of stove households will have no livelihood. Even if they want to farm for others, there won't be enough land to farm. So I also want to attract the population from the south to the north."

“It’s difficult to do it the usual way.”

“No matter how bad the south is, it is better than the north.”

"So you have to come up with other reasons that people can't refuse."

"I have decided to submit a petition to the imperial court to promote the establishment of a professional system in the north."

"All workers and miners in the salt and textile industries in the north can get a job, and if they get a job, they will stay on the job without the risk of being fired. Even if they are too old to work, the factory will provide them with a certain amount of living expenses."

"Not much, but barely enough to keep people alive."

"And we will try to place them away from the battlefield."

"even."

“I will promote it directly.”

"The millions of soldiers of the Ming Dynasty will never allow the northern border to become a battlefield. The battlefield will only be outside the territory of the Ming Dynasty."

"Depending on the South's own oppression and the North's propaganda, in the next few years, many northerners who were unable to escape in the past will return. According to my estimate, there will be about 200,000 to 300,000 people. Although it is nothing compared to the population of the South, it is very important to the North."

"in addition."

“Because the North is sparsely populated.”

“Many materials are inconvenient to transport, so the post stations will be restructured.”

"The functions of the post station are divided into two parts. In addition to maintaining the previous functions, it also has the ability to transport civilian supplies."

"Speed ​​up the delivery of supplies."

“Let human resources not be wasted as much as possible.”

"It is necessary to bridge the gap between the north and the south, but the current division between the north and the south is of great convenience to the court. The court can take advantage of the differences between the north and the south to make different measures for the situations in the two regions, thus achieving the goal of adapting measures to local conditions."

"As trade and commerce between the north and the south increase, the gap between the north and the south will become smaller and smaller."

"The most important thing to bridge the north and south is that you are in me and I am in you."

"At the same time, through maritime transport and other trade, we can forcibly pry open the isolation of the Jiangnan region. The northern system is superior to the southern system in certain circumstances. By then, it will force the Jiangnan region to make changes. At that time, the court can also use the public opinion of the Jiangnan region to place northern officials in the south to help Jiangnan make changes."

"Completely break the monopoly of Jiangnan gentry in the officialdom."

"Once the economic ties between the north and the south are close and the monopoly of the officialdom is broken, the strong position of Jiangnan will be weakened again and again."

"The Jiangnan region at that time was the land of fish and rice of the Ming Dynasty."

"Only then can the imperial court truly extend its hand deep into the south of the Yangtze River."

"Instead of relying on force to kill a wave of officials in Jiangnan as we are doing now, and then being unable to do anything, leaving the vacancies to be filled by the gentry in Jiangnan, this kind of thing doesn't have much substantive meaning."

"Hit the snake seven inches."

“Violence cannot solve all problems.”

“Political problems can only be solved through political means.”

Zhu Biao looked slightly strange.

Xia Zhibai's views are indeed very different from those of ordinary people.

Others saw that Jiangnan's economy was indeed prosperous, and that it was as if a needle could not be pushed in and water could not be poured out. They all thought of using violence to force their way open. But Xia Zhibai was different. His approach was, wasn't Jiangnan prosperous in commerce?
can.

I make you more prosperous.

Through business, you and I have a direct connection (sea transportation).

Then, by integrating the northern commercial system and building a more efficient system, more southerners would be attracted to move north, which would create pressure on the south. When there were internal disagreements in the south, the court would take the opportunity to send officials from other regions to begin to intentionally reorganize the southern forces, thereby making Jiangnan completely honest.

This idea is genius.

Zhu Biao pondered for a while and nodded secretly.

(End of this chapter)