New Shun 1730

Several ministers laughed, and Liu Yu thought to himself that I didn't mean to say anything like "throwing the bathwater out of one's mouth".

But the emperor had said so, and if he didn't respond, how could he appear to be wise and powerful, accurate in judgment, and accurate in judging people?

He had to pretend to be embarrassed, as if the "throwing the bathwater out of one's mouth" had come to his lips and was swallowed back into his stomach.

After acting for a long time, he said: "I think this matter is actually very easy to solve. Japan eats sugar, and the sugar can't be sold, so we beat Japan and let them only buy sugar from our dynasty; Indians also eat sugar, and the sugar can't be sold, so we beat India and let them not buy sugar from Britain; Persians still eat sugar, so we beat Persia and forbid them to buy sugar from the Netherlands, isn't this solved?"

Several ministers beside him were holding back their laughter, thinking that we also guessed that you would say this. Whale Marquis, Whale Marquis, he is a saint outside and a king inside, and you are clinging to tyranny.

One or two people who know the inside story also think that Liu Yu is obsessed with starting a war.

The canal transport was changed to sea transport. When a war broke out, sea transport would be safe as long as there was no maritime threat from the South Seas. In case of natural disasters, it was convenient to recruit soldiers and in the future, the victims of the disaster were transported to Ezo and other places, or to reclaim Mongolia and the Western Regions. Porcelain could not be sold to Japan, and the number of merchant ships was limited. When a war broke out, the war was fought until porcelain was sold in. Now, even white sugar, brown sugar, and rock sugar are directly considered to be started... It's really speechless.

Some people also think that it's a good thing that silk, porcelain, tea, etc. are easy to sell. If these things were not easy to sell, or if people closed their doors and did not buy them, and were ordered to be frugal, wouldn't they have to fight from Japan to Europe just to sell tea?

If others said this, most people would think it was really outrageous. But Liu Yu talked about it every day in the court, and these people were numb to it. Instead, they felt that if Liu Yu didn't think so, it would be a big problem.

After finishing his usual remarks, Liu Yu added: "As for the saying that merchants seek profit without morality, this matter... When there were exemptions in the previous dynasty, many people brought land to serve and evaded taxes. Only those with meritorious service were exempted, and I have not seen that those who read the books of sages are much more virtuous than merchants."

The emperor laughed. The example Liu Yu gave was really not very pleasant, but the reality is not always so beautiful.

Li Gan thought to himself, I still understand you, and even think of the words you want to say. The example you gave was really within my expectations. It seems that you are really afraid of what the Dutch say? Or do you think I will really stop eating because of choking?

However, in fact, Liu Yu is not really afraid of what Valkner said.

The Netherlands is the Netherlands, and Dashun is Dashun. The situations on both sides are completely different.

In Liu Yu's view, Valkner's worry is that a foreigner who thinks he understands China uses the experience of the Netherlands to understand Chinese affairs.

For Dashun, the uprising of the handicraft factory is a trivial matter.

On the contrary, dumping, bankruptcy of small farmers, and disintegration of men farming and women weaving are the big things.

The Netherlands is not afraid of the latter, but the former, because the Netherlands does not have the latter at all; but Dashun does not care about the former at all, but is afraid of the latter.

Although the two are two sides of the same coin, the Dutch poisoned the wrong direction.

Liu Yu is not a Dutchman, and he knows the situation of Dashun very well, so there is a clear boundary for the handicraft factories he set up: in the early stage, he resolutely did not touch the "sensitive" industries such as textiles.

Dashun does not lack labor, and does not need to carry out any enclosure movement. It can rely on normal mergers and even the landless refugees under the policy of suppressing mergers.

Even if the emperor's brain is rusty now, and he really uses the "30-year land rent redemption policy" of the northern Confucian scholars to achieve equal land throughout the country, there will be no shortage of labor.

At this time, the world's sugar market can only accommodate 300,000 to 500,000 workers, including slaves, serfs who cut sugarcane, etc.

In fact, the consumption capacity of the whole world at that time, pure sugar factory industrial workers, even if there is no steam engine and the capstan is pulled by oxen and horses, can only accommodate 100,000 people at most.

Moreover, mercantilism and high tariff barriers are popular in all countries, and they all want to be a Pixiu who only eats and does not defecate. Dashun can only accommodate 30,000 to 50,000 laborers at most.

What can this number of people do? Not to mention that it is impossible for all of them to revolt together, even if they come together, 30,000 to 50,000 people, will the court take it seriously?

Therefore, Liu Yu has always believed that the world market at that time is too small, and the world may not be able to accommodate the productivity of a pre-steam era handicraft factory in southern Jiangsu, not even the whole Jiangsu.

The essence of industrializing one province first is to treat the rest of the country as a colony and quickly disintegrate the small peasant economy where men farm and women weave. For this reason alone, the emperor would definitely not allow it.

If you want to do this, you must be separatist, or raise a flag in troubled times, create a mountaintop country or paradise on earth in a corner of the country, and treat the rest of the country as a colony. No nonsense, just dump and disintegrate the old economic foundation. It is simple and effective, and it can force the court to deal with large-scale uprisings.

But in the court, doing this is courting death. The pillar of the court system is the small peasant economy. Whoever becomes the emperor must find a way to suppress mergers and stabilize small peasants.

Valknir used Batavia, a tiny place, to disgust Dashun. In fact, to put it bluntly, in the less than 100 years since Dashun was founded, an uprising of 3,000 to 5,000 people is not a big deal? An uprising of less than 40,000 to 50,000 people that cannot shake three states and five counties is not qualified to be recorded in history books.

Liu Yu had already drawn a red line for the "danger in the eyes of the emperor" brought about by the handicraft revolution, and he didn't touch it at all.

And the various situations outside the red line are not considered to be a case of throwing away food because of choking. At most, it is like a piece of black rice crust from the pot on the dish when eating.

On the contrary, Valknir's words would remind the emperor to expand outward and seize the market.

Because, when things come to this point, the emperor knows very well that he can't go back.

The way to go back is nothing more than the old sayings of the Northern Confucian school, and the various magical changes of the well-field system.

The nonsense ideas of Yan Yuan and Li Zhen such as the thirty-year land rent redemption are not bad.

It is the same correct nonsense as "If I have infinite strength, I can lift Mount Tai". It cannot be said to be wrong. The key is: the result is very good, but how to do it?

The emperor is not Wang Mang, how could he be so stupid as to take this step?

Besides, Liu Yu has understood the emperor's temperament.

Even if the emperor wants to return to the pure small peasant era, restore the old system of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, turn the whole country into a big rural area, control population mobility, etc., he needs to do it step by step.

Whether it is immigration or reclamation, it is all to ease the contradiction between people and land. And this requires money, a lot of money.

Just like what Liu Yu said to Tokugawa Yoshimune during the negotiations in Japan: Whether Tokugawa Yoshimune wants to reform or retreat, he must first be a comprador for a few years to save money.

The same is true for Dashun.

Whether it is progress or retreat, it must expand outward for a few years, support a wave of industry and commerce, and save money.

Without money, nothing can be done.

Moreover, the court was "cheated" by Liu Yu before, and the emperor's impatient temper of being ambitious and ambitious, so that the stall was too big.

It has been a long time since the immigration to the Western Regions, the reclamation of Mongolia, and the expansion of the northwest border. A lot of money has been spent. At this time, we can only bite the bullet and hold on, otherwise the money invested before will be wasted.

Especially after the emperor saw some benefits of commercial taxes, buying bets, monopoly, etc., looking at his bulging wallet and the annual report of the Western Regions, Mongolia and other places asking for money, he can only take one step at a time.

The emperor even took the initiative to say the four words "throwing the bathwater away" (a phrase that means "throwing the bathwater away").

Although the important officials thought it was just a joke from the emperor to tease Liu Yu, they also understood that the emperor himself said these four words, seemingly mocking Liu Yu, but in fact he was temporarily suppressing the matter and temporarily defining it as "whoever uses this to make a fuss is throwing the bathwater away" (a phrase that means "throwing the bathwater away").

After all, these four words came from the emperor's mouth. Although he joked that he guessed Liu Yu would say this, he did not say that Liu Yu was wrong to think so.

Liu Yu took this opportunity to promote the theory that expansion is beneficial, but the emperor still did not refute it, as if he had already guessed that Liu Yu would say this, and laughed it off.

In fact, this has become the norm in the entire Dashun court, and those who advocate war say it every day.

At the beginning, there were still a few comments about militarism and excessive hegemony, but later they were too lazy to say anything, and they were used to it and just treated it as fart. Anyway, the emperor didn't say anything, so we have to listen to what he said and do what he did.

After the emperor laughed, he treated the remarks on the benefits of expansion as a daily routine, just like being shouted "Long live" by others, and did not continue the conversation.

Instead, he talked about the Batavia incident, which could be used as a reference for Dashun.

"Before, the weavers in Suzhou Prefecture all shouted for a rest, and although a monument was erected to permanently ban shouting for a rest, it only covered weaving, spinning, and embroidery. Moreover, it was only erected in Suzhou Prefecture, and it was difficult for other places to know about it, and they might not know how to deal with it."

"I have never seen it, and I don't know what to do. At that time, it will be like Changzhou County, where the county's affairs will be discussed in the court. Fortunately, the weavers only asked for more wine money and piecework wages. If it is the Batavia Sugar Factory, when the news spreads from Suzhou to the capital and then back after the court meeting, I am afraid that the matter will be out of control."

"Therefore, I think that in the future, when we establish industries and open workshops, if we have old industries, everything will remain the same. . "

"All new industries can only be established in Zhili, Songjiang and Wendeng. They cannot be established in other places."

"Zhili, Songjiang and Wendeng each have garrisons. Even if something happens, it is easy to deal with. Moreover, the officials in these places are familiar with business affairs, which is better than those who have never seen it and are completely in the dark."

"Just like the officials who have been in the southwest for the reform of the land system, if you ask them to deal with business and other matters, I am afraid they will not be able to handle them clearly."

The emperor said his thoughts, implying that although the Batavia incident looked scary, it was because the Netherlands was too small and had too few soldiers at that time.

Wendeng has a small station camp, which always has 15,000 to 20,000 regular field troops stationed. It is also the garrison of the navy, and there are also many marines.

There are also 8,000 field troops stationed around Songjiang now, just to guard against the excessive power of merchants. The emperor wants to treat the merchants in Songjiang as chickens for laying eggs and pigs in a pen, so naturally he has to send people to watch them.

As for Zhili, it goes without saying. The largest number of field troops of Dashun were stationed in Zhili.

In the eyes of the emperor, what Valkenir said was indeed a little ridiculous.

Indeed, the market of the Dutch East India Company ranged from Cape Town to Japan, and it can even be said that the sugar of Batavia accounted for one-third of the world's market share outside East Asia.

The problem is that with such a large scale, there were only a few thousand people who pulled the lever to start the rebellion.

Even if all those people revolted, there would only be 10,000 or 20,000 people who cut wood for soldiers. The Netherlands could not mobilize many troops, and thought this was a big deal.

For Dashun, a large industry that produced one-third of the world's trade in a certain commodity only had a few people revolting. What was so terrible?

How big of a deal was the uprising of three to five thousand people? A county could easily have an uprising of 10,000 or 20,000 people, and how much was the land tax revenue of a county? Only 20,000 or 30,000.

Now after the military reform, the troops and horses are strong.

How would the nearly 100,000 field troops in the Zhili area be afraid of an uprising of a few thousand people? The eight thousand field troops in the Songjiang area and the five thousand field troops in the Wendeng Weihai Camp can directly suppress the signs of an uprising.

The emperor still doesn't know where the truly terrifying thing is. Even if he has only vaguely touched the edge, it is not that clear yet.

Since the founding of the country, Dashun's policies on industry and commerce have been relatively loose. The large number of gold mines in the Qixia area shows that Dashun is not worried about the so-called "brave and ruthless people gathering together to fear trouble."

If you use this to scare Dashun, you won't be able to scare him.

As for the truly terrible things that would destroy the Dashun Dynasty, bankrupt small farmers and completely collapse the natural economy, Liu Yu had been hiding them from the emperor.

Valkenir had a good idea of ​​scaring Dashun, but he was a Dutchman, not a Chinese, and he had no idea what the Chinese emperor was afraid of.

Liu Yu thought about these places and said hurriedly: "Your Majesty is wise! In this way, nothing will go wrong."

In my heart, I thought that it would be enough to eliminate the abnormal economic prosperity of the military camp caused by the special envoy Wen Deng and only allow the establishment of emerging industries in Songjiang and Zhili.

Songjiang has advantages in water and maritime transportation and is a light industry center. There are large coal mines around Zhili and a completely controllable large iron mine in the north. Basically, there will be no shortage of materials for emerging industries. First placed under the emperor's nose and under the supervision of the elite field troops commanded by the imperial power, the most dangerous place is actually the safest, allowing him to grow up slowly and secretly.

The Minister of Household Government also said: "I believe that His Majesty's knowledge is really far-reaching, and it is not enough for me to wait. In this way, it will not only prevent the matter from being difficult to control, but also enable officials to learn how to deal with it, and will not over-squeeze." Moreover, when soldiers retire from the army in the future, they will have something to do instead of becoming unemployed and causing trouble.”

The emperor immediately shook his head and said: "If any retired soldiers have no property, the imperial court may pay them to immigrate to the Western Regions and the Sea of ​​Whales to reclaim wasteland. This matter must not be confused!"

"People who have retired from the navy can do business and go to sea with the ship."

"However, people who have retired from the army would rather spend more money to immigrate to have a job in farming, or to buy permanent land, or to be registered as a soldier in the border guard, or to be a member of a good family. They must not work in a factory for temporary convenience. , and leave a big problem in the future.”

"In addition, the eight thousand garrison in Songjiang must be rotated in the future. Farmers with family property, soldiers from the government, and sons of good families are the best. We cannot use the soldiers recruited by the victims to guard it."