"Besides, since there are already outstanding people, let's keep an eye on them," Li Xingchen said in a deep voice, "I'm afraid there's not a single person who wants to be on our side."
As he spoke, Li Xingchen looked at Xu Chang next to him.
Of course, the people he was talking about who were on his side were not the Bashu family or the Guanzhong family, but the Southeast family.
Xu Chang was born into a Southeast family, to be precise, he was a member of the Southeast General family.
"Your Majesty, please rest assured. I am from the Anlu Xu family, but I am loyal to Your Majesty. The Anlu Xu family is also willing to go through fire and water for Your Majesty, no matter what!" Xu Chang said hurriedly and seriously.
Since Xu Du's death, the Anlu Xu family has been hit by the families along the Dongting coast and has been in a state of collapse. Otherwise, with the dignity of Xu Du, future generations would not have such a difficult time climbing up. Therefore, the Anlu Xu family has long been prepared to take advantage of this situation.
It’s time to deal with these former opponents, and the Xiangzhou Yin family is one of them.
The Anlu Xu family no longer has the strength and courage to rise again and become a first-class big family, but they are confident that they can pull others down, at least let everyone's children be on the same starting line, and other people's children will not only need their parents.
Just talking can replace the children of your family who bleed and work hard to get a chance to advance.
It is not only the Anlu Xu family who have this mentality, but also groups such as the Bashu family and the Guanzhong family. For them, it is either because they are weak or because there are barriers between several families that they cannot do anything at all.
They cannot trust each other, so they do not have the capital to compete directly with the Southeastern nobles, which makes them more inclined to stand on His Majesty's side and achieve fairness in competition between the two parties through another method.
Li Xingchen did not place his hopes of finally defeating these Southeastern aristocratic families on pure violence, because not violence can solve all problems.
In the past three hundred years, the Southeast Family has integrated with the entire south. They are like towering trees, with huge and complex root systems touching every corner of the south. If these big trees are directly uprooted,
, then it will be a heavy blow to the South.
If nothing else, the most important thing in ancient production and life was salt and iron. Every history book will have a special "Salt and Iron Theory" to describe the salt and iron policy of this dynasty. It can be said that people's lives are inseparable from salt.
and smelting, this is true even in later generations.
The salt in the south, especially in the south of the Yangtze River, mainly comes from the ocean, and the iron comes from the mountains and forests. Most of the sea areas and mountains and forests in the south are under the control of the aristocratic family. Maybe the control is not accurate, but the aristocratic family has control over most of the mountains and seas.
It has influence, and a large part of it is even their private property. Therefore, the salt and iron policy of the southern court cannot bypass the aristocratic family no matter what.
Although there is no overall concept of economic development in this era, the family still knows how to keep salt and iron, two important components of the economy, in their hands.
Now the Commercial Department of the Han Dynasty can only play an intermediary role, responsible for purchasing the salt and iron from the Aristocratic Family and unifying the dispatch. This can reduce to a certain extent the possibility of the Aristocratic Family controlling the entire market and even the people through salt and iron. But the Aristocratic Family
As long as the production of salt and iron can be controlled for one day, the Han court will have no way to regulate the market.
Especially if the family intends to destroy everything, it is more likely to lead to the direct collapse of the entire Han economy.
This is unacceptable to Li Xingchen, so he does not intend to force the family to that point. The easiest way is to "drove the wolf and devour the tiger" and let families such as the Anlu Xu family stand up and seize the salt first on behalf of the court.
After that, the imperial court smoothly took over the salt and iron franchise from the family.
Salt and iron monopoly is not a new concept. As early as the Qin and Han Dynasties, the country had been strengthening its control over strategic materials such as salt and iron. The Northern Dynasties had implemented a strict salt and iron monopoly system since the Northern Wei Dynasty.
The production of salt and iron was all controlled by the imperial court. Even though the Guanlong Group and the Shandong Family were very powerful, they could only influence the production of salt and iron through the imperial court, but they could not determine the output of salt and iron.
Therefore, the northern part of the Han Dynasty, including Bashu and Guanzhong areas, is actually specialized in salt and iron, while the southeastern part is privately owned by aristocratic families, so salt and iron must be the key to this war between the imperial court and aristocratic families.
In addition, the southern cloth, charcoal trade, etc. are all areas to be fought for.
This is only about economy and trade. Under the relatively closed feudal social system in ancient times, economy and trade were only a small part of the entire society, and even insignificant. What is more important is local political power and local education. Until now, the Han Dynasty has been in the large and small counties in the south.
In the government, the appointment of officials still relied on local aristocratic families, and what Li Xingchen wanted to solve was the problem of aristocratic families controlling local political power and local education.
The purpose of implementing a strict system of prefectures and counties and opening a wide range of academies was to compete with the aristocratic families for local control. However, such a simple grab would be useless, and the aristocratic families would not let the court do this, so conflicts were inevitable.
Simply using the army as the vanguard to sweep the past may be the best way to defeat hundreds of tricks with one force, but this also means that everything will be turned into ruins. Li Xingchen must start from scratch. The current Li Xingchen simply does not have so many
of time and energy.
If aristocratic families loyal to the imperial court and local officials join forces, it may be possible to receive everything from these large aristocratic families more "smoothly", and then naturally transfer everything to the imperial court more smoothly, and ultimately realize the imperial court's control over all aspects of society.
Comprehensive control and monitoring of all aspects.
Of course, Li Xingchen is not just so relieved about the aristocratic families who are now the vanguard of the Han Dynasty. Every aristocratic family has the dream of flying up the branches and becoming a phoenix, and some aristocratic families are already working hard to realize such a dream. For example, like
The Shen family of Shen Jungao is originally a big family above the clouds. It is probably not that easy for them to willingly destroy the order they have established and maintained. They agree to do it now just because it is in line with them at this stage.
interests, but when it goes against their interests later, they may not defect in the face of battle.
During the three hundred years of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, aristocratic families have proven with practical actions what it means to not be morally (harmonious).
So Li Xingchen was not unprepared.
The white robe has been fully unfolded, and Li Xingchen finally pulled out this sharp blade to the outside world, ready to insert it into the chest of his own people at any time. If they betrayed the Han, then perhaps it would be more appropriate to call them enemies.
Baipao has taken advantage of the rapid development of chaos in the north in recent years and has formed a large network all over the north. Before the Han Dynasty went north, this network showed a power that cannot be ignored.