New Shun 1730

After hearing this answer, the emperor was still not completely relieved.

After the Dashun army was reformed, it was invincible in the surrounding areas. But the Netherlands is just a small country the size of a palm, and the South Sea is a tricky one, and the navy is decisive. Dashun has never fought with the elite troops in Europe.

Although many people have been sent to Europe in recent years, after returning, they all said that the European military formation is just so-so, and there seems to be nothing to learn.

The emperor has confidence.

But when Niu Er, who has seen the British colonial army and the Indian army fighting with his own eyes, says it, it's different.

The key is that the emperor has been persuaded by Liu Yu that the attack on India should be delayed for one or two years, and when the time is right, Dashun will enter the battlefield in full.

According to Dashun's experience, the speed of training troops is still quite fast.

As long as the military pay is sufficient, the soldiers can eat enough, and the military pay can be paid monthly, with Dashun's sufficient officer corps, it really takes three to five months to train a bunch of line soldiers.

After listening to Niu Er's story about what happened in India, the emperor was the most sensitive person to political struggles, betrayals, and betrayals.

It's easy to know that the British must have benefited a lot from this. I'm afraid that the British are determined to sense Dashun's intentions and use all the benefits to train soldiers, which will inevitably cause some trouble.

Since the Indian soldiers were mentioned, Liu Yu was asked again: "My dear, do you think that as long as the Indian soldiers are well fed and paid, they can also have new military strength. Can the British expand their army in India?"

Liu Yu hurriedly said that he could rest assured.

This is really a system problem.

The British East India Company was afraid of being controlled by the royal power, so it came up with a weird equality system for everyone over 500 pounds.

Even if you hold 100,000 pounds of shares in your hand, you will elect the board of directors just like those who hold 500 pounds.

Everyone invests in order to make money. For such an illusory thing as the invasion of Dashun, everyone unites and does not share dividends, and uses all the money to expand the army?

If he really had such organizational ability and decision-making level, he would not be considered a joint-stock company.

This is not blinded by greed, but under this decision-making system, it is impossible to do the kind of thing that the emperor is worried about.

Besides, if the core contradiction cannot be resolved, the British have no choice but to stop expanding the army and quickly get rid of the French. Expanding the army... Clive is nothing. He dares to bypass the board of directors and directly use the money that Bengal gave to the East India Company to expand the army?

Besides, it is useless to expand the army less. The navy cannot get an advantage. Dashu can still defeat them one by one like the Japanese invasion. If the army is expanded to the extent that it can confront Dashun, the money paid by Bengal is not enough.

The emperor was reassured again. The emperor nodded, hummed, and read Niu Er's report carefully.

After reading it, he asked a strange question.

"When you return to the capital, I think you will know about the Mentougou Railway. In your opinion, the court should use the Indian tax revenue to implement the immigration policy. So, what if I use this money to build a railway?"

"There is only so much money, and what you said makes sense. We can't squeeze it too hard, and we should also increase the burden on local governments. I think even if we take all of India, the per-acre tax will be about the same as our dynasty. Excluding the maintenance of the army, there will be at most 20 million taels left."

"By then, will we build a railway? Or will we immigrate?"

"Duke Xingguo used to immigrate There are many mysteries in these strategies, and I think you must know the reason. Merchants in the South Ocean and North Fuso have no profit. If they want to immigrate, they must get money from the court. I am afraid that the methods used by Duke Xingguo before will not work. "

"As for this railway... I have always believed in the practical methods of Duke Xingguo. This thing will surely surpass the canal in the future and should be greatly developed. It is expected that it will gradually mature in a few years. "

"How do you think this money should be chosen?"

This question is too weird.

Not only Niu Er was stunned, but Liu Yu was also stunned for a moment. He didn't expect the emperor to ask this question at all.

But Liu Yu's confusion only lasted for a short while, and he immediately understood the emperor's subtext.

Obviously, the emperor didn't want Songsu's capital to intervene in the railway. Because now the capital that can raise capital that is truly rich enough to rival a country is Songsu's capital group.

The railway is definitely impossible to build there. If it is to be built, it will be built with the capital as the center. The emperor didn't want these capitals to intervene in the "internal" areas.

A few years ago, when the emperor was on a southern tour, he discovered some problems in detail.

For example, the textile industry in Songsu was expanding rapidly along the canal.

After the canal from Funing to Nantong was built, capital quickly took control of the villages, towns, and counties along the canal along the water of the canal.

All places along the way were involved in the textile industry. A large number of ships came and went, and the movement of spinning wheels going to the countryside also spread at a speed of several miles a day.

It can't be said that it was a bad thing, at least when Dashun expanded externally and sold goods everywhere, it was definitely a good thing. The people's men farmed and women wove, and their lives were getting better and better.

But the atmosphere or social atmosphere in Songsu, which the emperor didn't like very much and couldn't describe, also spread rapidly along with the canal.

The railway must be a good thing. The emperor also believed that this thing was like a musket. At the beginning, the musket was far worse than the bow and arrow, but it had greater potential.

The key is, how is this good thing defined? Who is it good for?

The emperor was well versed in the law of checks and balances, so Songsu could be prosperous, but the Songsu model could only be controlled within a certain range.

The success of Dashun also came from dealing with the Hus, not making them all the same, and checking and balancing each other, which made the imperial power more stable and solved many court problems that the previous dynasties could not solve.

Moreover, Dashun's land system was destined to be very easy to merge.

The court recognized the land deeds, and it was a standard private ownership of land. So, how to stop Songsu capital from buying land?

If you intervene in the railway and expand along the railway, a large amount of silver will flood into the mainland like a tide-Dashun does not produce silver, the money used at the grassroots level is copper coins, and silver is more like a foreign currency decision. Once it is released, how can Songsu, the only "producing" silver, expand?

Just say that land transactions are prohibited? This is obviously nonsense and useless.

The premise for prohibiting land transactions is to carry out comprehensive land reform. Dashun does not have this ability and cannot do it at all.

Moreover, Niu Er described to the emperor a "beautiful" future of occupying India.

If the railway belongs to merchants, or merchants have a huge say in the railway, then wouldn't Songsu's goods flood into the interior like a tide?

At that time, the "beautiful" future of India described by Niu Er will be staged in the interior of Dashun first.

To a certain extent, the emperor's worries are not wrong.

In the current situation, if the railway is really built, Dashun can really experience in advance what it means to "gentry are generally bankrupt and inferior gentry".

In the history of imperialist aggression and dumping, even if there is no tariff, there is still a freight from Europe to Asia, and even the freight for one ton or more is four or five taels of silver.

It will be more convenient for the first-developed areas of Songsu to play, at least, there is no need to consider the freight from Europe to Asia.

Woven cloth is produced in Europe, and with the blessing of railways and ships, the problem of small farmers' bankruptcy caused by dumping can be spread to all provinces.

Even the small and medium-sized landlords in the countryside were generally bankrupt, which eventually led to extreme poverty in the interior, and eventually evolved into a situation where a large number of gentry children became red-this is why the set of things in the late Qing Dynasty did not work, because the internal exploitation was not thorough enough at that time.

Some grassroots small and medium-sized landlords in Dashun actually operated handicrafts in addition to owning land.

The interior is still in its infancy. The strong capital, massive silver, industrial revolution, and mechanical production in Songsu and other developed areas can directly blow up the old economic system in the interior with railways, ships, etc.

In fact, it can be simply understood that Europe after the industrial revolution moved parallel to the Songsu area, eliminating the freight from Europe to Asia.

This is different from the United States. The homestead law allows each household to get 160 acres, equivalent to 960 acres of land. Even if the people in Dashun are hardworking and hardworking is in their genes, who has 960 acres of land and lets his wife weave cloth by herself? Idle?

Most of the hard work of the people in Dashun was forced out. Without land, they could only accept 50% to 60% of the rent. If they didn't do some handicrafts themselves, they really couldn't survive.

Moreover, the circulation and sales of handicrafts are all systematic. Just like Dashun just moved the trade center from Guangzhou to the mouth of the Yangtze River, it directly caused a large unemployment in Lingnan.

The old system was destroyed, and tens of millions of people were affected.

Moreover, if capital was allowed to flow into the interior from Songsu uncontrollably, it would be a big deal for Dashun, which had private land ownership.

Even if the emperor couldn't think so comprehensively, he was worried about the consequences of Songsu capital expanding inward from all angles.

So, is the railway a good thing?

For the emperor, it is a good thing.

How to use this thing?

It should be used as a "Qinzhidao" for mobilizing troops.

As a "Grand Canal" for disaster relief and convenient transportation.

As a "frontier barracks" where troops can be quickly dispatched in case of trouble in the frontier area, thus solving the problem of heavy inside and light outside, light inside and heavy outside.

By stationing the army around the capital and relying on the railway, the inside is the outside and the outside is the inside.

Or, in several areas where the contradiction between people and land is serious, such as Henan, once there is a disaster, rice from Nanyang and sorghum from Liaodong can be mobilized immediately for rapid relief.

Will the future with black smoke definitely break the old era? That is not necessarily the case. At least the railway may really stabilize the small peasant economy.

Annual maintenance does cost money. Before that, the canal, water transport, water control and so on also cost a lot.

In history, the serf owners in the snowy mountain area drove cars, used diesel engines to generate electricity, and listened to Mozart. Did this hinder the continuation of serfdom?

If we look at this matter from a pure, national perspective, according to a purely national perspective, the emperor could have been shot directly after asking this question.

Obviously, at this time, we should take advantage of the last rays of the Age of Exploration to seize the land under the sun and not occupied by others, and move people of the same ethnic group there, moving hundreds of thousands of people a year. If he hesitated on such a matter, we can directly declare this emperor unqualified.

If we consider the emperor's consideration on the railway issue from the perspective of whether productivity has improved or not, there is no need to say how to characterize it.

Even from the perspective of this era of industrial revolution, the direction to consider should be how to complete the transition.

You can use means and reforms, the purpose is to make the grassroots people and small farmers withstand the pain of transformation during the transition period and not die; or, to be more cruel, consider how to suppress the severe pain during the transition period.

Completing the transformation is the goal, and the rest can be means.

However, it is obvious that the emperor's thoughts at this time have nothing to do with these three items. He did not think that the comprehensive completion of the transformation of the new era was the ultimate goal, nor did he think it was his responsibility. Even though he was not reactionary in technology, he actually supported the development of railways.