"Finally, let's talk about the centralization of resources. The so-called centralization of resources refers to the resources that the court can control."
Liu Jin looked at everyone and continued.
"Although gold and silver are very important to the court and the country, gold and silver only represent wealth. In itself, they cannot be eaten or drunk, so they do not have much effect."
"Things like food may seem inconspicuous at ordinary times, but they are truly effective. Once a famine occurs, the role of food can be revealed."
"There are other things similar to food, such as coal. Coal can be used for heating. Once a cold disaster occurs, coal can be quickly allocated for disaster relief."
"Another example is steel. Steel can be used to make weapons and equipment, tools for production, and it can also be used to build bridges, roads, etc."
"In addition, there are cotton, cloth, salt and other resources. These resources are all important materials related to the national economy and people's livelihood, but most of them are not in the hands of the court and the country, but in the hands of merchants and trading houses."
"The so-called centralization of resources is a bit similar to the large granaries built by the imperial court. They are usually used to store food and can be used to provide relief to victims in times of famine."
“But this is only a very preliminary and crude form of centralization of resources.”
"For true resource centralization, the court and the country should control a large number of various resources, such as food, cloth, steel, cement, salt, horses, etc."
"We have a lot of resources at hand that can be used immediately if needed."
"Taking grain as an example, if the imperial court has a large amount of grain in its hands and the price of grain rises too fast, the imperial court can sell a large amount of grain to stabilize grain prices."
"When the price of grain is too low and the price of grain hurts farmers, the imperial court can spend money to purchase a large amount of grain to stabilize grain prices and protect farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain."
"But now in the many warehouses established by the imperial court, the grain in these warehouses is only the tax collected from various places, not the grain hoarded by the imperial court. It cannot be regarded as the control of resources, but can only be regarded as a kind of tax."
Liu Jin finished speaking in one breath, and he could take a breath.
In fact, to put it simply, as the Ming Dynasty developed into the capitalist era and the colonial era, the way the Ming Dynasty managed the country could no longer be as extensive as before, but should slowly change to the national management model of later generations.
, requires more refined management.
Only by managing all aspects of the country from macro-control to micro-control can we adapt to the needs of the times.
"Hmm~"
Everyone listened carefully and thought carefully while listening. After listening, everyone nodded and had to admire it from the bottom of their hearts.
If we want them to talk about how to govern the country and how to centralize power, civil servants such as Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian, and Zhong Zhong all estimate that they want to govern the country with benevolence, justice, morality, and govern the world with filial piety. They are all false and empty words.
There is no practical content.
But Liu Jin was able to be very systematic and explain in detail how to centralize power, the benefits and functions of centralization, etc. He explained it clearly and clearly, and it was immediately clear to people how to do it.
No matter how big the territory of the Ming Dynasty is, no matter how populous it is, no matter how many tribes it manages, there will be no problem as long as it is operated according to Liu Jin's method. The entire country can be firmly controlled, and it will always be under the governance of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
Down.
"Listening to what you have to say is better than ten years of reading!"
Emperor Hongzhi also sighed for a long time. He had never known so clearly how to govern a country and how to govern a country well.
The Confucian classics I have read since childhood, the history books I have read, the art of emperors, the ways of governing a country, etc. that I have learned since childhood are not as clear and thorough as those taught by Liu Jin. The key is to make them easier to understand.
Emperor Hongzhi was actually a little panicked at the time. The territory of the Ming Dynasty was really too big. The original two capitals and thirteen provinces had already kept Emperor Hongzhi busy. Now the territory is dozens of times the original size. In addition, with this
Emperor Hongzhi didn't know how to manage the many newly incorporated tribes.
Now he is fine, he is confident, he just needs to grasp the core.
"Your Majesty, thank you~"
Liu Jin smiled and replied.
Then Liu Jin thought about it and said: "Actually, the main core problem that our Ming Dynasty is facing now is actually a human problem."
"Oh, keep talking~"
Seeing that Liu Jin still had something to say, Hongzhi immediately cheered up, pricked up his ears, and listened carefully.
"Studying the history of China, we can know that wherever the Han people go, the place will naturally and slowly become the homeland of China."
"And even if those places where we have few Han people can be brought under the rule of our Central Plains Dynasty for a while, they will eventually be lost as time goes by."
"Now the territory under our jurisdiction in the Ming Dynasty, the northern Liaodong grassland, the Liaodong area is better. We Han people already account for the majority. However, on the grassland, we Han people are still rare, and the majority are still grassland people."
"In the Western Regions, although the imperial court immigrated millions of people, the proportion of Han people here in the Western Regions still does not have an advantage, and the total number is even far lower than the local tribal population in the Western Regions."
"In Nanyang, Jiaozhi, and Xianglin provinces, the local population is still very large, and the number of Han people is sparse. There will be no problem in a short period of time, but as time goes by, problems will still easily arise."
"In the Golden Continent, the local descendants of the Yin Shang have a large population and their folk customs are fierce. Our Han people are even rarer. Therefore, although this Golden Continent is nominally the land of our Ming Dynasty, we currently only have control of some coastal colonial strongholds.
There is no real control over the Golden Continent.”
"The core of all this is that there are too few Han people among us!"
"So I think that if the imperial court wants to rule such a vast territory, it must vigorously encourage births and encourage us Han people to have children."
Liu Jin thought for a while and then said.
Regarding this point, many scholars in later generations came to the conclusion after research. Some people have everything, and only one of them is the most reliable, because they have the same blood, the same culture, and the same values.
"Do you think this is inappropriate? Since we are all the subjects of the emperor, is it unfair to the other tribes living in our Ming Dynasty to only encourage Han people to have children?"
Zhong Zhong thought for a while and expressed a different opinion.
Encouraging fertility is nothing new. All dynasties have encouraged and even rewarded fertility. Each generation of emperors and dynasties attached great importance to this matter.
It is precisely because of this kind of attention that China has been able to last for thousands of years. Even though it has suffered one disaster after another, it has always been able to recover quickly, because since ancient times everyone has understood the truth that only one person has everything.
, and without people, there is nothing.
"Isn't it fair?"
"I think this is fair."
"These tribes are now willing to surrender to me, the Ming Dynasty, and be loyal to the emperor, not because they are of the same mind as us, but because they were conquered by the powerful force of our Ming Dynasty. They are afraid of us, so they have to surrender to us.
"
"But once they are given a chance, they will immediately fight with us again, and even plot against our fertile land in China. Isn't this kind of thing rare in history?"
"I believe that our Ming Dynasty should conduct a thorough census to find out how many people there are in our country, how many men and women there are, how many young and old, how many Han people, and how many foreign races there are."
"After thoroughly understanding the population of our Ming Dynasty, the imperial court should formulate a policy to divide the people of our Ming Dynasty in detail. The Han people should be at the highest level, followed by those who have been educated and are devoted to the Ming Dynasty, and us
Although the Han people have different bloodlines, they share the same culture and ideas as foreigners."
"Then there are those who have adopted Chinese surnames, adopted Chinese names, and can speak Ming dialect; and then there are those who are unwilling to change their Chinese surnames or give up their Chinese names, and are still stubborn."
"Such a policy is formulated to distinguish between concubines and concubines and treat them differently. Different levels can also promote each other. This can promote the tribesmen in the Ming Dynasty to work hard to learn our Han culture."
"As long as they learn Han culture and receive ethical education, they will naturally share the same language, characters and thoughts with us. Only then can they be considered our own people."
"If we do not treat these tribes differently and treat these tribes with so-called fairness, it will be the same as what has happened time and time again in history."
"When these tribes, large and small, become stronger and our Central Plains dynasty becomes weak, they will immediately raise their butcher's knives against us again."
"This is not just a conflict of interests, but more importantly, it is because we and them do not have a common language, common writing, common customs and thoughts, just like the waters of the Jingwei River, even if we are together,
That's also a clear distinction, after all, we are not a family."
Liu Jin immediately laughed. Surrendering to you just means surrendering to you. It does not mean that they will not rebel in the future. You treat them as one of your own, but they have never treated you as a family member.
Liu Jin firmly believes in the view put forward by many scholars in later generations that only ideological and cultural identity is the strongest. The territory of the Ming Dynasty is getting bigger and bigger, and more and more tribes are joining. If this concept is established, in the future,
You will definitely suffer a big loss.
Those who are not of our race must have different hearts. This is an iron rule that has been verified by the blood of countless people at all times and in all countries.
Emperor Hongzhi, Liu Jian, Li Dongyang and others all nodded in agreement after hearing this.
