New Shun 1730

The more Liu Yu talked with these investors, the more in-depth they became. Gradually, some of the comments made the Lianghuai Salt Commissioner beside him unable to resist.

The things Liu Yu said were not unreasonable to the Lianghuai Salt Envoy, but... were too straightforward, naked, undisguised, and too utilitarian.

Although everyone in the court had always known that Liu Yu spoke like this, which often did not match up to some of the benevolent and moral rhetoric in the court, the more he spoke in front of businessmen, the more he "didn't cover it up", and the Lianghuai Salt Policy Envoy felt that he It's better to take a trip back.

At this time, Liu Yugang was talking about the construction of the salt field.

"Salt is a national priority, and His Majesty also attaches great importance to it, so he has authorized you to contribute money and military strength. The Huaihe River has already taken shape, and 6,000 people have been allocated for it this year. Fortunately, it is not far away, and it does not need to cost too much. money."

As for who will do the actual construction, the imperial court's intention to support the chaebols has been very clear, otherwise it would be impossible to use the Xiang army to do such a thing.

When the Lianghuai salt envoy heard this, he thought to himself that he, the Jiangsu Jiedushi envoy, was really just a second assistant officer.

It seems that His Majesty has already decided what to do, otherwise Duke Xingguo would not be able to mobilize the army.

The investor did the math in his mind, and although he felt that the cost was a little higher, he could only accept it.

At least when it comes to eating, using the Xiang army is much more expensive than hiring ordinary people. The Xiang army also needs to eat the imperial grain. The price of the imperial grain is actually more expensive than buying the food themselves.

Not to mention military pay during the construction period, they are definitely not qualified to pay military pay.

They provide money, but the military salary must not be their money; they provide food, but the military ration must not be their food.

This is a head-turning thing.

"That's very good. Your Majesty's grace will never be forgotten by us. In this case, the sooner the better. With all the materials required, are bulk purchases directly within the scope of the contract?"

Liu Yu said with a smile: "You don't have to worry about this. The so-called support should look like support. You pay, and it will be big."

"With the current situation, I might as well explain it to you clearly. Whether it is sea salt or well salt, there will be no problem if it is used by the imperial government. However, if it is used by the government, there will be a lot of trouble."

"You have also heard about the situation in the past few years when the coin minting workers of the Baoquan Bureau went on strike together. It made the court very unhappy and the craftsmen also had a lot of resentment."

"In this Baoquan Bureau, the important matter of making money must not be left to private individuals. But for the rest... I'll leave it to you."

"The resentment of the work is also resentment of you. The court saves a lot of trouble. It mediates arbitration and checks and balances. We will deal with you when it is time to deal with you and deal with them when they should be dealt with. Just have some idea in your mind."

The businessmen kept saying yes. Of course they knew about this matter. After all, it happened in the capital and caused an uproar.

It was probably the factory where the imperial court minted money. Someone had deducted wages. In addition, there was an accident at the Xishan Coal Mine at that time, which caused the price of coal to rise, the income of the craftsmen to decrease, and it was difficult to maintain their lives, so they were extremely dissatisfied.

A sand foundry organizes craftsmen. Then there was a money grinder who was disobedient, and in future generations he would be considered a craftsman and thief.

The sand-turner got into a fight with the edger who didn't go on strike with the others, and he was accidentally killed.

Once the thief was dead, the rest was easy to deal with. Several coin-making workshops joined together to ask for wages.

There was quite a fuss.

However, this kind of thing is really common for these businessmen from Songjiang Prefecture.

Even if there is no such thing as the great protest of coin minting craftsmen in the capital, there are many similar incidents in the south with the development of industry and commerce, and they are mentally prepared.

Before the Dashun Trade Center was moved to Songjiang Prefecture, the masons, silk weavers, and garment workers in Guangdong had long organized the Western Association, and the "Western Family" was in opposition to the "Eastern Family." The boss also formed the Dongxinghui. If the two parties can discuss, they can discuss it. If they can't discuss it, they can do it.

The Suzhou weavers called for a break, the rice subsidy movement, the Jingdezhen workers' protest, the Songjiang Prefecture Cotton Textile Industry's Kung Fu Federation, etc., these big businessmen have seen a lot of vigorous events.

Moreover, a textbook-like activity just broke out not long ago: a textile industry thieves used "let's get together, let's find a theater troupe to sing a play" as early cover, raised funds, and contacted trustworthy brothers. By buying rice and noodles in advance, the colleagues who participated in the labor break did not have to worry about food and clothing. After half a month of labor rest, they convinced their employer and promised to increase their wages.

The two major skills of "killing the thieves first" on the side of the Capital Minting Bureau and "raising funds and preparing food for long-term resistance" on the side of Sunan were both learned by themselves.

With the rise of maritime transport, the transmission of information has accelerated. There are also some thoughtful people who use the excuse of "denounce, criticize, and expose these people's wolfish methods" to fool the useless local officials of the court like fools, and write these methods down. It was spread everywhere in newspapers, and technical exchanges between Qixing and Xie became increasingly frequent.

Nowadays, these craftsmen are very accustomed to "sacrifice" the leader in exchange for their demands being fulfilled.

The craftsmen are still in the stage of "the river god is wreaking havoc, and those who take the lead in resistance are selected as sacrifices to the river god".

The imperial court, again, the Dashun imperial court didn't even understand the affairs between landlords and farmers, let alone the affairs between craftsmen and employers.

The capital has been fed up by the hard-working people of Dashun, and has been brought to a level where it can wait for Westerners to send money by Dashun's developed handicraft industry. Their methods are extremely crude, and they have no ability to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the ruling class.

These three parties can really be described as "perfectly matched opponents" given Dashun's own national conditions.

Therefore, the imperial court prefers to be at peace with each other, and they really don't want too many troubles to come to them, and they find that they really don't understand it well.

In addition, I felt that the imperial court could stand detachedly on the economic basis of small farmers and reconcile the two contradictions between craftsmen and employers, which now seemed peripheral and not the main contradiction at all. If you don't understand, don't directly control it. Instead, let them fight with each other and the court will control it.

This can be regarded as the inertial thinking of promoting good families to check and balance the imperial examination since the founding of Dashun.

In fact, if we go further, it seems that we are heading towards Germany: the emperor pretends to be the emperor of small producers and farmers using Confucian principles; he relies on hired workers, small farmers, small producers and morality to scare the boss; he relies on the new era's Terror scares small farmers, small producers and hired workers to tell the horrors of the new era; relies on the military corps of good families to maintain the army; relies on the support of plutocrats to strengthen the imperial power's external expansion.

Although in fact, due to factors such as the land issue and the separation between the chaebol group and the gentry group, this road seems feasible, but in fact it is completely unworkable.

However, Liu Yu wanted to create an illusion that it was feasible and make the emperor think that he, the emperor, had found a feasible way by himself, and then lured the Li family dynasty into a hopeless abyss step by step.

If the emperor thought that there was a hopeless abyss ahead, he would not go forward.

But it would be different if Liu Yu continued to create illusions and made the emperor think that the front was not an abyss but a light.

One of the keys to this illusion being recognized by the emperor was the conflict between labor and capital.

The emperor was afraid of the new era, new things, and new production relations.

But Liu Yu kept tempting the emperor, saying, look, it is actually possible to "use small farmers and hired workers and Confucian utopian morality to scare capital, and use the horror of capital's gluttony to scare small farmers and hired workers."

That is to say: You bunch of capitalists, if the imperial power hadn’t taken care of you, you would have been killed by small peasants and Confucian ethics; you bunch of small peasants and craftsmen, don’t think that the new era is so good, the new era is about cannibalism, and the new era gives All you have brought is bankruptcy, abject poverty and catastrophe. Leaders of the new era like Liu Yu have been thinking of destroying you all. How terrible!

The emperor acquiesced in the spread of some new ideas, but as far as the main point was concerned, it was "rebellion under orders" and intimidating each other, creating the illusion that "except the emperor can suppress it, no matter who else comes to power, the other half will die".

As the most "loyal" "loyal minister" around the emperor, Liu Yu even used this topic to say: "The so-called impartiality and impartiality, and what is meant by impartiality and impartiality? It means "I will deal with you when it is time to do it" You, deal with them when it is time to deal with them], that is to say, when you need to be restrained, the imperial court is the only one that employees can rely on; when it is necessary to help you..."

"The imperial court is upright. It does not mean that there is a right line. The court must stand on the right line..."

The Lianghuai salt envoy on the side swallowed his saliva, coughed quickly, and stopped Liu Yu's truth about scaring investors. He quickly went back and said: "This... uh... this, what the Duke means, is The salt policy of this dynasty must be restored to the old system of Liu Zhengzhou in the Tang Dynasty, and the major drawbacks of the previous dynasty's salt policy must be eliminated. The key to this lies in production. "

"The collapse of the salt policy of the previous dynasty began with the lack of salt. During the Wanli period, people had to drink poison to quench their thirst. There were even merchants who hoarded salt and made a profit by reselling it. This dynasty is trying to get rid of this poison. "The key to this period lies with you, the manufacturers."

"You must not let down the court's hard work, nor let your Majesty's grace be let down. You should work hard to produce..."

Even though these two Huai salt envoys had read a lot and were familiar with ancient and modern history and politics, they had to go around a long way to stop Liu Yu who was telling the truth.

Liu Yu curled up the corner of his mouth slightly, smiled, and then said nothing more. Instead, he allowed the Lianghuai Salt Envoy to finish talking about the scene.

Anyway, Liu Yu has said enough before, and the issues that investors are really concerned about have been solved and explained. The investors also cooperated with the Lianghuai Salt Envoy, putting on an expression of fear of Sheng En, and listened to him put this pile of After finishing the scene, he praised him again and again.

After all the words were said and these investors dispersed, Liu Yu asked with a half-smile, "Mr. Lin, do you think now that what I said before was just tinkering, or was it nonsense?"

The Lianghuai salt envoy was silent for a moment and couldn't help but laugh at himself.

"My lord, I said before that after hearing what my lord said, I just felt that all the books I had read in the past thirty years were in vain. Now I really don't want to talk about it anymore. Your lord is trying to make me feel that all the books I have read are in vain."

"Your Majesty, I forgive you. This is not the kind of nonsense that makes you suddenly enlightened, but it means that all your sincere ambitions to make me an official have come to naught."

"Before we talked about sales, now we talk about production. Before we talked about the unfairness of secretly citing overt votes, now we talk about the government's support and differentiation of employers."

"Now that I think about it, they are really the weakest words."

"repair."

"Repair, repair, repair, repair, every repair is to drink poison to quench thirst. It was like this in the previous dynasty, this time the poison seems to be gone, but the antidote contains crane crown red, which cannot be separated. Either it is poison. If it penetrates the bones, or the poison is detoxified, drink Hedinghong, tinker with it, but there is no cure for the root cause. "

"The Duke knows that during the salt policy reform during the Wanli period of the previous dynasty, the biggest enemy of the reformists was the truth, which was so correct that it could not be refuted."

"So much so that the reformists repeatedly submitted memorials, arguing that [wanting to relax the salt ban is to impose heavy penalties on the people]. We must first debate the classics and prove that the government's control over the salt policy is correct and cannot be too relaxed, otherwise there will be no change at all."

"As for the truth, the people are the basis, and I really can't refute those who support the relaxation of salt administration supervision. Can the Duke explain it?"

Liu Yu shook his head like a rattle, and made it clear: "I don't have this ability. If I can't win the debate, I will lose."