Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 299: Old Zhu's Problem! Only when grandfather and grandson cooperate can great things be accomplished!

Rumble!
Rumble!
Outside, there were sudden bursts of thunder.

Jinling City is located in the south, where it rains a lot and there are occasional thunderstorms in winter.

Although the sky was gray and hazy just now, it was still overcast and there was no sign of rain.

At this moment, a muffled thunder sounded and the wind started to blow.

Things have changed.

There is a folk proverb that goes, "When winter thunder shakes, nothing can grow, insects do not hide, and wars often break out."

inside the room.

Zhu Yunhuan was so shocked that he stood there in shock.

"Grandpa Emperor, you...what nonsense are you talking about!"

Old Zhu shook his head, sat up from the bed, and said, "Don't panic. When I said I wanted you to kill the king, I didn't really want you to kill me."

Zhu Yunhuan's face was full of confusion.

Old Zhu's words completely confused him.

Old Zhu's dragon eyes glanced towards the door.

There was constant noise outside, but the door remained closed.

Yang Rong, Yang Shiqi, Yao Guangxiao and others stopped the ministers.

"Okay, time is running out, let's not waste any more time. Let me ask you something first. How should the Ming Dynasty's debt be resolved in the end?"

"Yang Rong already told us on the way here."

"What he said does make sense."

"But I still feel that this is still unstable after all."

"If we continue to issue bonds without limit and live on borrowing, sooner or later, big problems will arise."

Old Zhu showed a worried look.

"It is certainly a good idea to borrow money from banks to develop."

"But once you develop a habit, there's no turning back!"

When Zhu Yunhuan heard that Old Zhu no longer talked about regicide but asked about state affairs, he felt greatly relieved.

"Grandpa Emperor is extremely worried. Borrowing money for development is a road of no return."

Of course, he is well aware of the disadvantages of debt-driven development.

Lao Zhu immediately asked back: "Why do you still do this?"

Zhu Yunhuan lowered his head and sighed: "My grandson just wants the people of the world to have enough food to eat as soon as possible, so that fewer people will starve to death."

"Let the soldiers on the frontier quell the border troubles as soon as possible and eliminate the enemies who are eyeing our Ming Dynasty covetously."

"This way, there won't be countless good men of the Ming Dynasty dying on the battlefield every year."

"My grandson also wants to help the poor people wear cotton clothes as soon as possible so they won't be ravaged by the cold."

"I can build thousands of mansions, so that everyone in the world can have a place to live."

"Let medicine develop and cure many diseases of the people."

"Let the emperor live longer."

"But if I don't borrow money and only rely on the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue, the money I have for investment is too little and far from enough."

"To achieve this, it may take decades or even hundreds of years of development."

"During this period, how many people will starve to death, how many people will shed their blood on the border, and how many people will endure severe cold and hunger!"

"How can I bear it now that my grandson is in power?"

"Only by borrowing from banks and gathering the financial and material resources of the world to promote the rapid development of the Ming Dynasty can the people live a good life with enough food and clothing as soon as possible."

His tone changed slightly, and he continued, "However, Grandfather Emperor, please rest assured that your grandson is still very alert to this."

"The Ming Dynasty is still in its early stages of development, and the return on investment is very high."

"Plus, the court took the money directly from the bank, so the interest rate was very low."

"Invest 10 million taels of silver and you'll make it back in two or three years."

“The current debt is not a problem.”

“Debt only becomes a big problem once the economy develops.”

"So, the grandchildren will slowly limit and reduce the debt later."

“I will never leave a pile of debt to my children and grandchildren.”

Debt can drive rapid economic development, but it can also trap a country in a debt trap.

The Ming Dynasty was still too backward.

With a clear development direction and ready-made technological paths, as long as we invest money, the economy will take off immediately.

This is the key to Zhu Yunhuan's courage to borrow money to develop the Ming Dynasty's economy.

In future societies, every country will issue national debt.

Because finance has a huge impact on a country's economy and people's livelihood.

There is no doubt that borrowing government bonds to finance development is a very cost-effective deal.

But Lao Zhu’s concerns are also correct.

Once debt goes too far, it becomes an unstable powder keg that can explode at any time.

How to control debt is something that every country must pay special attention to.

In theory, as long as the debt size is kept within a certain range, there is no risk.

The country's rulers are also very aware of this.

But the reality is much more complicated.

First of all, human nature is flawed and human desires are endless.

Just as many people borrow money to consume.

A country is made up of people, and its rulers are also human beings, and they will also have such desires.

Compared to other ways of raising money, issuing debt is the simplest and easiest.

Under normal circumstances, everyone will remain relatively rational.

But what if the country faces economic difficulties and a fiscal crisis?
Rulers have only two choices: one is to increase taxes on the people, and the other is to increase debt.

Emperor Chongzhen chose to increase taxes. The "three taxes" problem made people's lives miserable and eventually led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

Chongzhen undoubtedly did not know that he could issue a large amount of government bonds to solve the country's financial difficulties, nor did he have the financial foundation to do so.

Otherwise, Chongzhen would definitely choose to issue national bonds instead of levying the "three taxes".

Debt is a great solution to financial difficulties.

But if the rulers are ambitious and do not restrain their desire to issue bonds, the debt will be like a balloon that is constantly inflated and will explode sooner or later.

The biggest reason why Zhu Yunhuan dared to issue a large amount of national debt was that the Ming Dynasty was still too backward and production was seriously insufficient, so the goods produced had no trouble selling.

At this time, investing money in large-scale production will have a very high rate of return.

With the support of super high rate of return, repaying debt is a very easy thing.

If we have to worry, we have to wait ten or even dozens of years.

At that time, the materials produced by the Ming Dynasty had become extremely abundant, and the production return rate became very low... The debt problem surfaced and became a trouble that plagued the Ming Empire.

Therefore, in Zhu Yunhuan's plan, he would step on the brakes early.

It is better to develop more slowly than to nip the debt crisis in the bud.

Compared with later societies, he had a great advantage.

That is, there is no need to worry about competition between countries.

With his full support, Ming Dynasty's technology will have an overwhelming advantage over the surrounding countries and all countries on the blue planet.

This is an environment that does not exist in later generations.

In later generations, competition between countries was very fierce.

In order to keep up with the times, to prevent the backward countries behind from catching up with them, and to catch up with the developed countries ahead, many countries sometimes have to take the risk of borrowing. They know that it is very dangerous to continue to increase debt, but in order to win the competition between countries, they can only grit their teeth and make up their minds to continue to borrow.

It depends on which country can survive to the end!
The winners will win huge fortunes, while the losers will cause their countries to fall into a debt crisis and their economy to collapse overnight.

But today's Ming Dynasty is far ahead of other countries in the world.

There is no worry about this.

Zhu Yunhuan was eager to develop simply because the people of the Ming Dynasty were too poor.

Compared with later societies, it was too backward.

People are starving to death and freezing to death every day.

Countless people have died because of the advancement of science and technology and the backwardness of medicine in later generations.

If you give birth to ten children, often less than half of them can grow up safely.

Most die in childhood.

The people are too bitter!
Life is too hard.

Zhu Yunhuan just wanted to solve these problems as soon as possible and lead them into a society with enough food and clothing.

This is saving millions of people.

He has arrived in this era, and these people are no longer records in history books, or heartless numbers in the books, but living people around him.

To the best of his ability, he certainly wanted to prevent the common people from having to live such a miserable life.

They are not NPCs in games, nor are they numbers in books; they are living beings.

But as long as basic living problems are solved, everyone can have enough food to eat, can wear clothes, and have basic medical care.

You won’t starve to death, freeze to death, or die from a minor cold.

At that time, the development of the Ming Dynasty could be slower.

We can free up more energy to promote social fairness and focus on distribution issues.

We can protect the environment well without having to take the path of first polluting and then controlling it.

All this is because the Ming Dynasty was invincible and there was no need to worry about being surpassed by other countries, let alone failing in national competition.

It was not as urgent as in later generations, where in order to compete with other countries and to win the competition, we were forced to speed up again and again.

They are afraid that their economic development will be slow and they will be overtaken by other countries!
That could be more serious than the debt crisis or the pollution problem.

The situation in the Ming Dynasty was different from that in later generations.

It’s okay if it develops slowly.

There will also be enough time to resolve debt problems smoothly.

Instead of leaving huge debts to the next generation to solve.

Old Zhu looked at him deeply.

Zhu Yunhuan patted his chest and promised: "Grandpa Emperor, I promise you that in ten years at the fastest and twenty years at the slowest, I will definitely resolve the debts of the Ming Dynasty."

“Not only that, my grandson will also set iron rules to prohibit future generations from incurring debts indiscriminately and not allowing them to borrow money from banks at will.”

Old Zhu's expression changed from worry to joy. He patted his head and said, "I was worrying too much. My grandson is so smart, how could he not see this hidden danger? Hahahaha!"

After laughing, Lao Zhu said, "The second question is, when we went to the Daming Manufacturing Bureau before, we were stopped by the guards at the gate. Even when Jiang Li showed the Jinyiwei token, the guards were unwilling to let us pass. I'm sure you know this."

"We know that you want to prevent the Beijing's dandies from taking advantage of their status and position to play in the factory and affect the normal operation of the factory."

"But there are also some big problems hidden in this."

"As far as we know, the Ming Manufacturing Bureau has hundreds of thousands of people."

"Once these people take up arms, they will be an extremely powerful army."

"The capital doesn't even have so many soldiers and horses to suppress them. How can you leave such a huge hidden danger for the capital and ignore it?"

Lao Zhu's tone gradually became solemn and his expression became serious.

Zhu Yunhuan was stunned.

In his mind, no matter how many employees a company has, as long as a few policemen go there, they can arrest the person in charge.

Apart from pyramid schemes or other underworld organizations, I have never seen workers from any legal company stand up together to help the company bosses to fight against the police and the country!
At most, there are a few security guards and some trusted lackeys who would help the boss in this way.

When ordinary workers see the police coming to arrest the company's boss, they will just stay away and watch the show.

How is it possible to help the boss fight against the police and the country?

But he forgot that this era is different.

Personal dependence is very serious in this era, and people have generally formed this concept.

The farmhands who work for the landlords for a long time will really help the landlords to fight against the yamen runners as long as the landlords give the order, and they will even follow if the landlords start a rebellion.

To put it bluntly, they will do whatever the landlord tells them to do.

Unlike modern people in later generations, who have strong concepts of country and law in their minds.

I don’t do anything illegal!

If my boss asked me to kill someone or rebel, I would definitely not obey.

But people of this era really listen!

There are countless similar examples in history.

Especially during the turbulent times at the end of a dynasty, as long as the landlords were willing to open their granaries and release grain, they could quickly gather thousands or tens of thousands of troops to be loyal to him and follow him to conquer the world.

The imperial court was also very clear about this.

Therefore, there are extremely strict restrictions on how many looms a private household can have and how many people a mine owner can employ.

Because wealthy families employed more people, there were potential risks for the imperial court.

From this perspective, the Ming Manufacturing Bureau is indeed a huge hidden danger.

Hundreds of thousands of strong workers are also capable of manufacturing guns and gunpowder.

If the people who controlled him wanted to rebel... coupled with the ideas of people in this era...

At this moment, cold sweat broke out on Zhu Yunhuan's forehead!
Perhaps the Ming Manufacturing Bureau will not become a hidden danger now, and Zhu Gaochi does not have the courage and ability to rebel.

But if it is allowed to continue, it will sooner or later become a huge powder keg.

Once it explodes, the consequences will be unimaginable.

"Grandpa Emperor, I understand. This is my negligence."

"Thank you for your reminder, Grandpa Huang. I will immediately strengthen the management."

Lao Zhu asked back: "How are you going to manage it?"

Zhu Yunhuan said without hesitation: "First, move the headquarters of the Daming Manufacturing Bureau to the capital and make the Daming Manufacturing Bureau a department of the imperial court."

“Its subordinate factories are divided into different factories according to the products they produce.”

"The heads of each factory are recommended by the Manufacturing Bureau, assessed and appointed by the Ministry of Personnel, and supervised by the Censorate."

"The Ming Manufacturing Bureau is only an administrative agency that oversees the overall situation, not the owner of the factory."

"On the other hand, we should strengthen the education of factory workers, let them know about the country and the court, and understand that their loyalty should be to the Ming Dynasty, not to the factory officials."

These are ready-made experiences for later generations.

Therefore, Zhu Yunhuan didn't even have to think about it.

Old Zhu reached out and touched his beard, nodded slightly and said, "Not bad, you came up with a countermeasure so quickly. You are worthy of being our Old Zhu's grandson. You are really smart, hahahaha."

"In this way, the Manufacturing Bureau will be equivalent to the Five Military Commands Office or the Ministry of War, and there will be no more worries about rebellion."

"Now that these two matters are dealt with, we have nothing to worry about."

"And the most important thing is what you are planning to do by employing Fang Xiaoru."

Zhu Yunhuan's heartbeat suddenly quickened.

He didn't dare tell Lao Zhu about this, for fear that Lao Zhu would object.

But at this moment, Old Zhu pointed out the truth, and he couldn't help but start to worry again.

Unexpectedly, I heard Lao Zhu slowly say: "To accomplish this, we must cooperate with each other."

……

(End of this chapter)