New Shun 1730

Liu Yu was stunned and couldn't help asking: "Didn't I see the Rakshasa talking to his father-in-law outside the palace gate just now? Why didn't he ask Rakshasa about Ezo instead?"

As he spoke, he led Duke Qi into the main hall, where Duke Yi was also present.

After serving tea, he dismissed the servants.

Although the Nanyang strategy was a secret between the DPRK and the Central Government, and Duke Yi did not care about it, the emperor did not hide this matter from him. Firstly, because of trust, and secondly, Tian Suo, Liu Yu and others were involved in it, so I just said it.

After sitting down, Duke Qi took a sip of tea and then smiled and said, "What can we talk about about the Rakshasa people?"

"Sun Tzu said: Victory in a hundred battles is not a good thing; subjugating the enemy's army without fighting is a good thing. The first is to attack the enemy's strategy, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the army, and the last is to attack the city."

"The "Six Tao" also says: Those who are good at fighting will not wait for Zhang Jun; those who are good at getting rid of patients will be wise before they are born; those who are good at defeating the enemy will be better than invisible; those who are good at fighting will not fight with them."

"With regard to the matter with Rakshasa, we must plan and fight against each other. The Rakshasa people can't sit still anymore. The negotiation is 100% sure. What else do you have to ask?"

"But after this incident, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can be said to have stood firm. Without sending a single soldier or spending any money, it obtained a lot of land. Didn't you say before that what you can't get on the battlefield can't be obtained at the negotiation table? ”

"This is indeed true. If the enemy knows that you can get it on the battlefield, you can get it at the negotiation table; if the enemy thinks that you can't get it on the battlefield, you can't get it at the negotiation table."

"But wars cost money. If we can make adjustments according to the diplomatic situation, we can spend less money and kill fewer people. Your Majesty asked me to temporarily take charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but I will not put all my hopes in diplomacy. But at this time, , It’s an overkill, and it should be exaggerating the role of diplomacy and downplaying the role of the military in posing a threat to Rakshasa.”

Liu Yu nodded repeatedly, but Duke Yi Guogong beside him couldn't help but laugh and said: "Old Tian, ​​you have been to Europe for a while, and you have seen so many domineering things that you no longer have the heart to be king."

"Whether diplomacy is useful or not has nothing to do with land or wealth, but with principles, and whether it is a Chinese dynasty or not."

"Isn't the matter of Rakshasa Kingdom just about using barbarians to fight barbarians? Another name is diplomacy, but people in the Li government know that it is basically using barbarians to fight barbarians."

"How can things be so simple? If you want so much land, you have to give up the title of Celestial Dynasty. Do you think the DPRK wants land? Or the Celestial Dynasty?"

"This matter will cause trouble in the future. You two are optimistic."

Liu Yu shook his head disapprovingly and said: "The Han also used barbarians to control barbarians, and the Song Dynasty also used barbarians to control barbarians, but they were completely different. The Han used barbarians to control barbarians and conquered the Western Regions. It was because of its hope and determination, and even tried to reach Rome. This matter is similar. Your Majesty is also prepared to use the matter of Bowang Hou to find the Dayue clan as an alliance to determine the rationality of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "

"After all, Zhang Qian is a Langguan, and he did not study Confucian classics and etiquette."

Duke Yi chuckled and said: "You think the Han and Tang dynasties are good, so you think you can convince them by taking the Han and Tang dynasties as examples? Some people also think that the Han and Tang dynasties are not good, but they are all negative examples. Just like you think being tall is good, I feel that others will say that because you think he is tall, he should be well-educated; but what if someone thinks that it is better to be short?"

"I usually tell you to read more and stop reading those miscellaneous books, but you just don't listen."

"The books you read are different from the books others read. The same things will be completely different in your eyes."

"As the saying goes, if you know yourself and the enemy, you will be victorious in every battle. It is not a good thing if you don't study. You only know yourself but not the enemy. It just so happens that you have also come back from Weihai. Read more books in a few days. Even if you go to the West in a few days, the time on the ship will be Also read more books and read more scriptures and scriptures.”

“When you read, don’t use what you have in mind to think about whether it’s right or wrong.”

"It's about clearing your mind and treating you like a newborn baby, a young boy who has just learned to read. Only by understanding what those books mean can you understand what they think."

After being taught a lesson, Liu Yu didn't have anything to say, so he respectfully said yes.

But I said in my heart, that’s what I said, but in my two lives, my three views have long been fixed. It’s not like before puberty, when I can change my three views by reading books. How can I be as pure as a baby and understand the meaning of the book at this time?

After the training, Duke Yiguo said again: "That's all, I don't know if you can listen. Since your father-in-law asked you about Ezo, I won't talk about it. I don't care about Rakshasa, and I care more about Ezo. "

After saying that, the two old men looked at each other and smiled. Apparently, they cared more about Ezo than the Rakshasa border issue.

When Liu Yu saw this, he asked curiously: "It seems that my father also cares about it?"

"Of course I care. If the imperial court wants to develop the Ezo land, it must imitate the 'purchase' system of the Song and Yuan Dynasties and rent it out with tax included. If it is like a trading company, it will be bought out at a price. Now the capital is discussing this matter. A few days ago you In Japan, we don’t know. Nowadays, rich people are waiting to know whether it is worth so much money, and they all have no idea.”

"Furthermore, the court has issued a ban, prohibiting nobles from hoarding land and strictly ordering them to retreat. You are a knight, and your eldest brother can also seize the title. The family must leave some property for your remaining brothers. Like you said Yes, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. Now that the court wants to restart the purchase system, it must choose carefully.”

Maybe the name of the monopoly is not very pleasant, after all, it is too classical, and it is as classical as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Let's criticize it, its reputation is not very good. After much deliberation, I came up with the less classical ones, Pumai and Pumai from the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

The craftsman household system in the early Ming Dynasty gradually collapsed with the development of the economy.

After the Dashun Dynasty established its rule, private capital gradually accumulated, and all kinds of craftsman registration were abolished. This method, which originated from "the salt and iron monopoly, but the limited administrative capacity of the government could not fully supervise and control, and had to allow private capital to intervene in development", had to be revived again.

The so-called "buy and buy" is the legendary "tax farming system of the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty". It is also a variant of the current trading companies in various countries.

The state stipulates which ones can only be run by the government, but the government lacks capital, has no control ability, has too much corruption, and has too few officials and too high administrative costs, so some of them are taken out and contracted out.

Mountains, seas, rivers, and mines are all theoretically owned by the court.

For example, a mercury mine in the Mongol Yuan Dynasty was contracted to an individual, who paid the court a certain amount of mercury every year according to the agreed amount, and the rest belonged to himself.

At that time, it was not a silver standard, and many were still in-kind taxes.

Now, it is basically a silver standard, whether it is mercury, copper or iron, all are converted into silver and contracted.

The trading company in Songjiang was a start.

Theoretically, the court discounted the tariff and gave it to the trading company. The court didn't care how much money was earned, as long as the annual monopoly fee was paid.

This thing was a double-edged sword.

It was too slow to manage agriculture and agricultural tax.

But for smuggling, which was originally out of control, it was effective and could fully mobilize the enthusiasm of private capital.

Dashun gained experience in the trading company, and the court also made a profit. This time, in the development of Ezo and immigration to the whale sea, it was also prepared to try to make it an experimental area and try to restore the buying system of the Song Dynasty.

Yiguogong roughly talked about the discussion on the development of Ezo during the time Liu Yu was away, and Liu Yu understood it.

On the one hand, it was influenced by the success of the trading company, and on the other hand, it also borrowed from Japan's method in Ezo, the merchant contracting system.

So the court also prepared to contract out the fisheries, land, and mines in Ezo.

As long as you give money, the court basically doesn't care. The only condition is that you can only hire people from the Celestial Empire or the Ezo people, not Koreans or Japanese.

The court's idea is also simple. If you spend money, you have to think about making money.

If you want to make money, you have to develop.

If you want to develop, you have to find manpower.

If you want to find manpower, you have to immigrate from the mainland.

If you want to immigrate from the mainland, Korea is in the way. The route is fixed. The most suitable population for migration is the large number of poor people in Huaibei, Lunan and other places, and there are a lot of disaster victims every year because of floods and other factors.

In the end, the court does not have to spend a penny, and there will be enough population around the Whale Sea, and it can also ease the contradiction between people and land in the Huaibei area.

This is a bit like the colonial model, and it is a very standard model of the British North American colonies, contracting to colonial companies and granting monopoly rights.

There are many prerequisites for copying similar methods.

One of them is "making money".

For example, the Virginia Company relied on tobacco to support Britain's first colony in North America; France relied on "buying" fur.

In short, merchants and capital are not for the poor. They will only go there if there is a profit.

The prerequisite for Ezo is that Japan opens up and Japan opens up grain trade at the same time. Both are indispensable.

Without one thing, no one will go there even if it is given away for free: the poor who want to go there cannot afford it; the rich who can afford it cannot go there to be a self-employed farmer with 30 acres of land and a cow, which will lead to class regression.

After the purchase system is established, many problems can be solved.

The boat people who have been abolished from the status of slaves can be hired to go there to catch fish and shrimp and sell them to Japan.

A large number of poor people and landless people in the Huaibei area can go to sea from the port in the southeast of Shandong, which is the shortest route. They can be hired to develop there to ease the contradiction between people and land.

It can solve the problem of the scarcity of Han people around the Whale Sea, the worry that they will be taken back in the future, and deal with the encroachment of the border areas by the eastward expansion of the Russian Empire.

Of course, the most important thing is that the court does not have to spend a penny, and there is still money to be made.

Just like many immigrants who went to Southeast Asia, they really couldn't survive in their local area, so they had to run away. Even so, many of them went to sea, "working and paying for the boat ticket after going there", but they were thrown into the sugarcane plantation. If they dared to run away, they would threaten to report the Dutch for not having a residence permit.

It is unrealistic to rely on official immigration. If Dashun had such a level of organizational ability and could develop a large-scale immigration of millions of people, it would have rushed out of Asia long ago.

The immigration method that Liu Yu had previously carried out was basically like this, but it was just a small fight before, and this time the court wanted to really do something big.

And the gratifying thing is that it not only comes from the traditional "buying and throwing" system not too far away, but also can learn from the experience of the Virginia Company.

As for whether it makes money, it is definitely profitable.

The fish and shrimp of Ezo are also top-quality goods in Japan, and these alone are worth a lot of silver a year; and even if Japan believed Liu Yu's "four evil" theory, the population would remain at the level of tens of millions, and the price of grain would not be too low.

Liu Yu is not the only reformist in the court. If new ideas are given, naturally someone will be able to use them. The emperor should also consider throwing all the money of the nobles to develop the frontiers, and at the same time use the profits to replace the annexation of land in the country, killing two birds with one stone.

Although the rumors outside are good, everyone thinks it is very profitable.

But as the saying goes, those who are close to the water get the moon first. Whether there is any benefit or not, the two companies still asked Liu Yu directly so that they could have a clear idea and decide how much money to invest.

What Liu Yu thought in his heart was that, as expected, in the Dashun reform, if they want to move forward, they can only use the banner of retro... Fortunately, history is long enough, and some new things can always be dug out and used under the banner of retro. Today, they can dig out "Buy Flop" to explain that the colonial company is an ancient story, and tomorrow they may dig out something else.