Diqin Designer

Chapter 381 Daqin should develop into a hexagonal warrior

Without waiting for anyone to answer, Li Nian said, "When the Xiongnu became so dependent on the things of the Qin that they could not bear to give them up, and once they gave them up, it would seriously affect their livelihood and even their daily lives would be difficult to maintain, how dare the Xiongnu betray the Qin?"

"The Qin wants to control the Xiongnu's economy, make them dependent on the Qin, and make their economy develop abnormally, such as changing their mindset to 'it's better to buy from the Qin than to make it ourselves', so that the things they can produce are controlled by the Qin."

"Since the Xiongnu are good at herding, let them do herding for a long time. Don't think about industry or farming. If they are short of food, they can buy it from Daqin. If they are short of daily necessities, they can also buy them from Daqin. The Xiongnu just need to herd herding honestly. Daqin will take care of the rest for them!"

After hearing these words, the eyes of Qin Shi Huang and others brightened. If the Qin could do this to the Huns, the Huns would be firmly controlled by the Qin and it would be difficult for them to betray the Qin.

This is equivalent to making the Huns disabled. Even if they grow up, they will have one less hand and a shorter leg, which is not the normal development.

Of course, the Huns were dear friends of the Qin Dynasty after all. The Qin Dynasty naturally would not allow the Huns to go out with missing limbs and be ridiculed by outsiders. The Qin Dynasty would considerately equip the Huns with prosthetic limbs so that they would still look like normal people in the eyes of outsiders.

But if the Qin Dynasty could equip the Huns with hands and feet, then one day, it could also remove the installed hands and feet and turn the Huns into disabled people again.

This will cause a country's development path to go astray, and eventually it will become deformed and incomplete, thus weakening the threat to the Qin Dynasty, and the deformed and incomplete parts will still be controlled by the Qin Dynasty.

Imagine that one day, the Xiongnu people, except for a lot of livestock, had to import everything else from Daqin. The food they ate came from Daqin, the clothes they wore came from Daqin, and even the weapons they used were made by Daqin. Then even if the Xiongnu wanted to rebel against Daqin one day, it would be difficult to do so...

Once this method of control is accomplished, its effect is no less than that of direct conquest by sending troops. It can indeed be called "bloodless". The best thing is that it is very easy to deceive those countries in the beginning, making them unable to see through the Qin's calculations for a while, and instead think that Qin is doing this for their own good.

At the beginning, the Qin Dynasty would give them preferential treatment under the banner of "mutual benefit". For example, to the Huns, the Qin Dynasty would say that you Huns are good at grazing, which is your advantage. Unlike us, the Qin Dynasty is not as good as you in grazing technology, and it is not easy to find a suitable pasture.

You Xiongnu have the advantage of herding, but are not good at other aspects of production and manufacturing. We in the Great Qin are not good at herding, but can make things that are difficult for you to make, which just forms a complementary advantage.

How about you, the Huns, raise more livestock, and we will buy them at a price that suits your taste. Then you can use the money you earn from us to buy food, clothing, and weapons. You can divide the work and cooperate with each other, and achieve mutual benefit. It will be good for you, for me, and for everyone. Isn't that wonderful?

Raising “livestock” is too straightforward. If your place has certain advantages and is very suitable for providing us with a certain service, why don’t you continue to provide this service for us in the future? We are willing to give you a satisfactory price, and then talk about globalization, industrial chain division of labor, etc.

Even many modern countries in later generations have fallen into this trap, let alone the countries at that time. Not many of them could see the pitfalls clearly, and most of them would jump into the pit dug by the Qin Dynasty.

The industrial system of a country that falls into this trap often becomes deformed. In order to produce something, several countries must jointly produce it, which gives others the opportunity to control them!

To put it nicely, it is the division of labor in the industrial chain after globalization, which can integrate resources and allow everyone to complement each other in technology. You provide the people, he provides the resources, and I provide the technology. Or you use your technology to manufacture this part, and I use my technology to manufacture that part, and then we will combine them in the end.

This seems good, but there are problems. The most obvious one is that after the division of labor in the industrial chain, everyone no longer needs a complete industrial system. They only need to maintain the part of the technology that they need to complete. Anyway, the other parts are manufactured by other countries, so why do we study that technology and build those factories?
This was good in the golden age of globalization, when the economy was booming, everyone was making money, and it was easy for everyone to do business. But once the wave of globalization receded and others no longer wanted to divide the work and cooperate, those without a complete industrial system became naked swimmers.

Moreover, due to the abnormal development of its industry, it is unable to manufacture many things by itself and will have to be controlled by others.

Although Daqin is far from reaching the level of global industrial chain division of labor, the strategy designed by Li Nian for Daqin is based on it, trying its best to prevent other countries except Daqin from engaging in industry and making their development direction go astray.

After the Qin Dynasty developed industry, other countries saw the prosperity brought by the industrialization of the Qin Dynasty and would surely develop their own industries. Industrialization and modernization would become the general trend. The Qin Dynasty would not be able to stop other countries forever. In the future, other countries or nations would surely complete industrialization, but the Qin Dynasty would have the first-mover advantage and make other countries disabled.

The First Emperor and others figured out the intention behind Li Nian's words. This method would not be easily detected by the victim country, and if the victim country failed to react in time, the longer it dragged on, the harder it would be to get out of it. No wonder this guy repeatedly reminded that Daqin must retain independent and complete production and manufacturing capabilities.

Problems that could not occur in the Qin Dynasty could be led to occur in other countries, causing them to cause disasters. This "no trouble in one's own country but trouble in other countries" made the First Emperor and others quite satisfied.

Li Nian added: "But in order to achieve these things, Great Qin must have enough military strength to make other countries respect it. 'Truth is only within the range of cannons, and reason is only on the edge of swords.' Without the military power to intimidate other countries, how can other countries listen to Great Qin's reasoning?"

"The 'virtue' in 'conquering others with virtue' is often 'martial virtue', especially between countries, where 'martial virtue' is often emphasized rather than 'morality'."

Wang Jian nodded in agreement and said, "That's true. Without the support of strong military force, no matter how brilliant the strategy is, what good will it do?"

Li Nian said: "So my proposal can only be accomplished by the Great Qin in this era. Can the Wusun, Donghu, Xiongnu, Qiang, Baiyue and other tribes do it? This is also the reason why I have always believed that after the Great Qin Dynasty is established, a war is still needed to establish the dynasty! However..."

The word "yes" made Li Nian change the subject. He solemnly warned: "The strength of a country is not only its military strength, but also its economic and cultural strength. In the past, the Qin Dynasty focused on the military in order to destroy the six kingdoms and unify the world, while ignoring the construction of economy and culture."

"This development also went astray, but at that time it was to destroy the six kingdoms. In the context of the times, this deviation could be ignored or even not considered a problem. However, now that the six kingdoms have been destroyed and the world has been unified, it cannot continue."

Li Nian did not mention the consequences of continuing to go astray. The First Emperor and others all knew the consequences: Chen Sheng and Wu Guang started an uprising just one year after the First Emperor passed away, and three years after his death, the Second Emperor of Qin died. Hu Hai was indeed not an excellent successor, but Chen Sheng and Wu Guang started an uprising one year after the First Emperor passed away. Even if Hu Hai was more capable, he could not do it to this extent!

The Qin Dynasty left by the First Emperor had problems in the first place, and these problems did not belong to the First Emperor alone, because the problems stemmed from the system and development direction of the Qin Dynasty itself, which was jointly determined by the previous kings and ministers of the Qin Dynasty.

In the context of the Warring States Period, in order to destroy the six kingdoms and unify the world, the Qin Dynasty adopted corresponding systems to develop and become stronger. This was fine, but after the war, if it was not corrected, it would become a big problem.

This was also the source of the First Emperor’s fault. As the ruler who unified the six kingdoms and the founder of the Qin Dynasty, he failed to discover the problem or correct it.

It was not unfair that the Qin Emperor died in the second generation, and the Qin Shi Huang was more responsible for the demise than Hu Hai!
Li Nian mentioned this point again today to remind Qin Shi Huang and others, and to make them more deeply aware that this is no longer the era when the Qin Dynasty conquered the six kingdoms. The Qin Dynasty can no longer focus everything on military development as before, but must also pay attention to the development of other aspects. Otherwise, not only will the Qin Dynasty fail to make progress militarily, but it will fall into crisis!

Li Nian said: "The strength of a country is a combination of many aspects, not any one part of the economy, culture, military, or politics. If the economy is strong but the military is weak, it will become a weak dynasty and a weak country like the Song Dynasty!"

"Song was very rich, but was always bullied. Sometimes, even though it won a war, it had to pay compensation to the other side. It had no national dignity or respect."

"Some people think that it is worth spending this money to buy peace. Peace can earn more money. If the Song Dynasty can take advantage of the peace to strengthen its military and become stronger, and defeat the enemy in the future and take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, I think it is indeed worth spending money to buy peace first."

"However, the Song Dynasty was indeed as its name suggests. 'Song' means 'giving away' and 'cowardly'. Indulging in this kind of cowardly peace, it was no use being rich or prosperous during the Qingming Festival. The capital was still destroyed by the Jin people, and even the queen and princesses were abducted and turned into prostitutes!"

The First Emperor and others were also stunned by what they heard. This time they were really stunned. Li Nian had never mentioned much about the Song Dynasty before. He did not expect that this dynasty was so outrageous. It was obviously the victory of their side, but they paid money to the other side. The capital was destroyed, and the queen and princesses were abducted as prostitutes.

Li Nian added: "Later generations often mention 'Qin Emperor, Han Emperor, Tang Emperor and Song Emperor' together, but I think 'Song Emperor' is not worthy of being listed with the other three. If we really have to choose one, I would choose 'Ming Emperor'!"

This is Li Nian's true thought. If Zhao Kuangyin could live long enough, he might have the opportunity to be on par with those three. Unfortunately, he did not live long enough, and after his brother Zhao Kuangyi succeeded to the throne, the reputation of the Song Dynasty became even more difficult to reverse. How can this be compared with the Ming Taizu?
Although Zhu Yuanzhang had his own problems, he did expel the Mongols and establish another unified Han dynasty.

"Song is a classic example of a country with a strong economy and flourishing culture, but a weak military. No matter how strong the economy is, without military strength to support it, it is just fat meat in the eyes of others! On the contrary, if the military is strong but the economy is weak and the culture is insufficient, chaos will surely occur in the country..."

Li Nian doesn't need to give an example, Daqin itself is an example, "Moreover, with a weak economy and insufficient culture, the military may not be able to develop into a strong one!"

"I have just said that national strength is a combination of many aspects. A strong military can protect the economy and culture from being coveted by others. A strong economy and culture can promote the development of the military. If everyone can have enough food and clothing, and can read and write, the swords they make will be sharper, the armor they make will be stronger, and the army trained and organized by these people will be more combat-effective!"

"Daqin must develop in a balanced way in all aspects, be strong in all aspects, and have no shortcomings, so that it can stay ahead of other countries for a long time."

After Li Nian warned again, he said, "Regarding taxes, I put this point after the economy because taxes and economic production are deeply related. The economy of the Qin Empire will be affected by closer exchanges with other countries, so taxes must also change accordingly."

"If the livestock and crops raised in the future will be different from before, some places in the Qin Dynasty may raise certain livestock or grow certain crops under the imperial decree, then in these places, will the taxation method set by the Qin Dynasty in the past still apply?"

The First Emperor and his companions fell into deep thought. Li Nian continued, "When Great Qin trades with other countries, many foreign merchants will come to Great Qin to trade, and many Great Qin merchants will go to foreign countries to trade. The benefits generated from this are huge. Is it still appropriate to use the tax rate that Great Qin levied on merchants in the past? Should foreign merchants also be taxed?"

"The goods brought by foreign merchants will have an impact on similar goods in Daqin. If we don't collect taxes from them, won't we just let them impact the domestic market?"

Li Nian gave a simple example: "For example, if a country can produce a large amount of grain and export it to Daqin without any hindrance, having more grain is a good thing, but it will lower the price of the grain grown by the people of Daqin, making it difficult for the people of Daqin to sell their grain. Can it be considered a good thing for Daqin and the people?"

Li Nian asked several questions in a row, and after thinking about it in their hearts, Qin Shi Huang and others gave the answer: According to what Li Nian said, the taxation model of the Qin Dynasty must indeed be changed!

Not to mention other things, like the issues regarding merchants, it is necessary to levy taxes on them that are commensurate with their profits. Otherwise, if only a small amount of taxes is levied, the merchants will accumulate astonishing wealth, which will not be a good thing for a country.

Because if merchants accumulate more wealth, then other people will have less wealth, the court will have less wealth, and the people's wealth will also become less. But since merchants have accumulated such huge wealth, what will they want to do and what can they do?
As a qualified king and one of the top ministers of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang and others would naturally think about whether the merchants' huge wealth would have an impact on the Qin Dynasty and on themselves.

Even if merchants do not pose a threat to them, the huge wealth they hold is still a hidden danger. They must use taxes to reduce the profits of merchants, which will benefit both the country and the people.

"Besides, the development of the Qin Empire requires a lot of money, but where does the money come from? Does minting more coins give us money?"

Li Nian once again asked himself and answered: "That is not money, it is just an item called 'money' in name. Since it is impossible to increase the money of the Qin Dynasty by directly minting coins, other methods are needed to obtain sufficient income for the court. Taxation is the best method!"

(End of this chapter)