New Shun 1730

Of course, these thoughts could not be told to Liu Yu. In Li Gan's mind, the border of the Celestial Empire was Malacca.

If the door was closed there, Liu Yu's original terrifying prophecy would not become a reality.

Before that, a Privy Council that was trusted and had seemingly many powers and responsibilities was needed to formulate a thorough plan.

Now that he was about to try to let the Privy Council provide strategic guidance, Li Gan asked Liu Yu to draw up a list.

Some of them were assisting Li Li in Weihai, some were staff officers transferred to the Privy Council, and the other part was in charge of the logistics and supplies for this time. These departments should be set up first and then repaired after the war.

There was no way around it. For maritime logistics, people who were knowledgeable, planned in advance, and could communicate directly with sea merchants could only be found from the navy.

There was really no need to find someone who didn't know anything and gave blind orders. Moreover, sea transportation is much simpler than land transportation. The logistics of the expeditionary force need to be managed by a noble general. The logistics of the expedition to Japan and the navy's own system do not need such a high-level general.

Soon, Liu Yu drafted a list.

The Privy Council also issued the first order in this war against Japan, printed with the official seal of the Privy Council, and ordered the people on the list to come to Beijing overnight.

The second order was not issued by the Privy Council, but required the emperor to draft an imperial edict to order Li Li to temporarily take charge of the military affairs of the sea.

The navy is very special. Before, for the sake of efficiency, Liu Yu was in charge of it, so it was a place where no one was in charge. The six governments could not control it, the Tianyou Palace could not control it, and the navy was not a direct subordinate of the Privy Council, so it could not control it.

The only thing that could be controlled was the emperor's imperial edict.

The emperor knew in his heart that the navy would definitely have doubts. If Liu Yu had been in charge for so long and built it from scratch, and suddenly changed the generals without any doubts, the emperor would suspect that Liu Yu was deliberately falsifying it.

It was even more terrifying to be silent. How much control did he have over the navy?

So he asked Liu Yu to write a few letters to explain the situation and warn the navy to obey orders.

However, the emperor's edict had to arrive first, and Liu Yu's letter had to arrive later.

The emperor still wanted to see how confused and questioned the navy was.

After several operations, the emperor smiled and said, "This is the first time I have fought such a light battle. There is no need to worry about everything. The Privy Council should operate in the future."

Then the emperor asked another seemingly strange question.

"Lord Liu, in your opinion, if there is an accident in Songjiang and Guangdong, can the 20,000 troops gather in Tianjin within 20 days?"

"Your Majesty, if the wind direction is right, it will be more than 20 days. There will be no problem with logistics supplies and rice in the capital warehouse."

The emperor nodded, and felt that a big stone in his heart had been completely lifted off the ground this time.

If the south is stable, the world will be stable, and the money and money will be stable, and the court will not collapse.

As long as the navy is still in hand, Jiangnan will be like Shandong and Guangdong will be like Henan, no longer a place where the emperor is far away.

If there is a civil uprising, it can be quickly extinguished.

The emperor cast his eyes on Lu Zhilei again and asked with a smile: "Lu Aiqing, does this expedition to Japan look like the story in the novels where a feather fan is lightly waved and a powerful enemy is wiped out? What do you think?"

From beginning to end, Lu Zhilei never put forward any constructive opinions. It's not that he has no strategy, but that he can't keep up with the changes of the times.

But after listening to the whole plan of the war against Japan, he still had a huge wave in his heart.

At this moment, he thought of the words that Liu Yu had said to scare the emperor many years ago.

If Japan is like this, what will happen to Dashun if foreign enemies follow suit?

Did the emperor think of this when he wanted to overcome all objections and build a navy?

But he was not the young Liu Yu after all, and he was skillful in speaking. When the emperor asked him, he said: "Your Majesty, I think that one must first be benevolent before becoming a king. If Japan is benevolent, the people will love it, even if Ying Suobo has a plan, more than a thousand soldiers and horses, I am afraid it will be useless."

"Therefore, the lessons of Japan are both internal and external."

"The external one is to build a navy and change the army, which is the end."

"The internal one is to promote benevolent governance and love the people, which is the beginning."

His words sounded like nonsense, but in fact, they were the same as Liu Yu's words to scare the emperor.

It just took a different direction.

He didn't directly say that if someone came from the sea, there would be external forces that would be benevolent to win the hearts of the people, and they would cooperate with each other; or if there were people with ulterior motives in the local area who started a rebellion and relied on the help of external forces.

But he went around in circles.

The matter was one thing, but when Lu Zhilei said it, it was much more elegant and pleasant than what Liu Yu said at the beginning, and the taste was completely changed.

The emperor did not think Lu Zhilei was pedantic, but he also understood the hidden meaning of Lu Zhilei. He looked at Liu Yu and then at Lu Zhilei, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

In his opinion, Liu Yu was a typical desperate person.

The starting point of those words was: there is no hope, one year of extension is one year, the land annexation is a disease from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the present, no emperor can cure it, and Dashun can't do anything more. Besides, when the slogan of protecting the world was shouted, there were too many compromises, and the root of the disease was deeper.

Since there is no hope, it is better to build a navy, and one year of extension is one year, so as to avoid being defeated by the barbarians in the future, and Dashun will be labeled as a big hat comparable to Jing Kang.

After you die, who cares about the flood? As long as you leave your name in history, don't leave the evaluation of "Shun died in Taixing".

But Lu Zhilei represented another faction in the court, full of hope.

As long as benevolent governance can be promoted, many things can be solved. As long as the internal causes are resolved, external interference will not be a problem. As long as they can manage the internal affairs well, with Dashun's size, Yi Di has no chance at all. If every emperor in Dashun promotes benevolent governance, he can rule the country for generations.

Li Gan can feel this difference in mentality.

In Liu Yu's view, Dashun is a leaky ship that can only be repaired and sunk later.

In Lu Zhilei's view, Dashun is a normal ship. As long as the captain doesn't drive carelessly and hit the rocks, the ship will not sink in ten thousand years. If it sinks, it means the captain doesn't care about benevolent governance and drives the ship carelessly.

From the perspective of imperial power and nobles, the emperor felt that Liu Yu was too pessimistic.

Especially since he has not put forward any opinions on internal affairs in recent years, the emperor would not believe it if he said he did not understand.

It can be seen from the two incidents of Bunden's reform and Tosa Renzheng, this person definitely understands.

But I understand, but I didn’t mention it half a sentence. I finally mentioned the suggestion of changing water transportation to sea transportation, but then I pretended to be stupid and never mentioned it again. Obviously I felt that it was meaningless and could not be done.

At least that's what the emperor thought. The emperor really didn't expect that Liu Yu was so cruel that "a gentleman is far away from the kitchen", waiting here for a big disaster in the Huanghuai Canal to completely cut off the canal, and then solve it.

In the emperor's view, Liu Yu's solution was to expand externally.

Let the population go to Mongolia to cultivate wasteland, go to Ili to grow wheat, migrate vigorously to the Northeast Whale Sea, and conquer Southeast Asia so that the poor can no longer survive.

Dashun will die sooner or later, but he can die later. But even if he dies, his flesh will rot in the pot.

Liu Yu had never said this explicitly, nor would he have the guts to say it. However, the emperor felt from Liu Yu's actions over the years that the most aggressive and energetic person in the court was actually the most desperate in the court. of that.

The emperor also knew that Liu Yu's plan treated the symptoms but not the root cause, but compared to the ideas of the court and some great Confucianists, this seemed to be the only feasible plan.

Yan Yuan's land equalization, Huang Zongxi's overthrow of unification and feudalism, Li Kuan's thirty-year land rent redemption... all sound good, but each of them is ten thousand times more difficult to implement than immigration and reclamation.

Take the simplest idea here, Li Kuan's "30-year land rent and redemption" idea. Li Gan thought that if the court had this ability, what could not be done?

Although Liu Yu's method is expensive and laborious and treats the symptoms rather than the root cause, it is still feasible no matter how you look at it.

At this time, Lu Zhilei also saw the problem, but he didn't dare to speak as much as Liu Yu. This was a smart person's statement, completely different from Liu Yu's stupid young man, so he asked: "What Aiqing said I feel the same way about the bottom line. But I love you, what is the best way to deal with the root cause? Isn’t it just empty talk? If the previous dynasty lost the world, it would be just empty talk. I can implement benevolent policies. The current dynasty’s tax base is not much, but the people are still suffering. You don’t know why. Many schools have been built over the years, and benevolence and righteousness have been taught. Since Aiqing is talking about specimens, then is freeing money and food the end? If means such as freeing money and food are the end, What should I do?"

Lu Zhilei was speechless for a moment, and the emperor sighed: "There are three lessons for Japan."

"First, feudalism is definitely not feasible. Nowadays, Western countries are already in Nanyang. If we practice feudalism, we will definitely collude with Westerners."

"Second, the navy needs to be greatly built. Transporting food and troops by sea is a hundred times easier than on land, and the sea covers thousands of miles. Without a navy, there will be chaos everywhere."

"Third...hey..."

Speaking of the third point, the emperor couldn't help but smile bitterly, and said after a while: "The third point is to implement benevolent government. If there is no internal chaos, what should we fear from foreign enemies? It is really as Lu Aiqing said, if the Japanese government is benevolent and loves the people, Ying Suobo's Tosa strategy will be of no use. No use."

After saying that, he looked at Liu Yu and said: "Uncle Ying Suo insists on attacking the Japanese. This is a lesson to this dynasty. I will know your sincerity today."

"The war against the Japanese was done by Ai Qing, but it was only a trivial matter of two million taels, and it was not worth the cost of converting the Japanese into exile and quelling the rebellion. I should carefully observe the lessons learned from conquering the Japanese, and do not make the people of Qin have no time to mourn for themselves and for future generations." It’s sad that future generations will not appreciate it!”

"The affairs of the Qin people are separated by time. It is far less alarming than the Japanese state with only a strip of water."

Hearing the emperor's emotion, Liu Yu hurriedly said: "I didn't think so much."

"Oh……"

The emperor chuckled half-smilingly, glanced at Liu Yu, and asked: "Treat the root cause and the root cause. Does Ying Suobo have a way to cure the root cause?"

Liu Yu shook his head almost like a rattle. He felt that there was no hope of saving his life. He would have to wait for death sooner or later.

The road has reached this point and is actually dead.

Industrialization in keeping with the first industrial revolution can save China, but... Dashun will definitely die.

Not everyone can bear the pain of industrialization.

The external market is still too small compared to Dashun. Even if there is no industrialization now, as long as Western European countries relax tariffs and truly engage in free trade, Dashun's current productivity will be enough to wipe out the entire Western European handicraft industry.

This disease in the womb can be regarded as the reason why since the contention of a hundred schools of thought, all good things have been attributed to the rule of three generations, and the ultimate ideal is restoration. The road ahead is too terrible, so we still try to restore the old means of production and exchange, thereby restoring the old ownership relations and the old society, or it is an attempt to re-insert the modern means of production and means of exchange into the framework of the old ownership relations that have been broken through by them and will inevitably be broken through.

This was true for He Xinyin's Cuihe Hall; this was true for Yan Yuan's royal government in the mine fields; this was still true for Li Kuan's thirty-year rent redemption of public land system; and Huang Zongxi's destruction of unification and the restoration of feudal land equalization was still the same.

I can only circle in this circle and cannot get out.

To change to a more fashionable name, Confucianism has developed to this moment, facing the dawn and darkness of the new era, and its guiding ideology can only be "economic romanticism": the only way to eliminate the contradictions of capitalism is to react and return society to the idealized small-scale production mode.

The big tree that grows from the bud is too terrible, it wants to suck blood and eat people, rot bones and corrode souls, so why don't I just cut off the bud?

What is the idealized small-scale production mode? It must be both ideal and small.

That is, the well-field system under benevolence and righteousness, the guild system under benevolence and righteousness, and the village of local sages under benevolence and righteousness.

In fact, it is also very good.

It's just that this sentence has two elements.

"Idealization" plus "small-scale production mode".

The latter, the small-scale production mode, is easy to say.

For the former, the three words "idealization" are equivalent to nonsense. Idealized benevolence and righteousness bring about the reality of unrighteousness.

This is why Japan insisted on closing its borders, implementing the one-land-one-farm system, and suppressing merchants; this is why the former Ming Dynasty designed the world to be a large rural area with almost no mobility from the beginning.

This is also why Liu Yu was extremely afraid of the Confucian students of the Imperial College going to Europe, and why he had to send a group of people from Weihai who had not learned Confucianism to the old revolutionary base of Paris.

There are many schools of thought in the Enlightenment, but the cultural genes of Confucianism and righteousness destined them to be naturally closest to the economic romanticism in the French classical political economics school, that is, the utopian petty bourgeoisie - the school that forced the budding tree back into the embryo.

That was the school that made orthodox capitalism and orthodox science and social science Marx and Engels unite and hate it, and the last one to be jointly opposed by these two was orthodox feudalism.

The economic base determines the superstructure, and the cultural genes determine the closeness of the faction.

It's not that benevolence and righteousness are bad, but orthodox capitalism is really unjust, and the efficiency of cannibalism is much faster than the speed of the small peasant economy that takes 400 years to cycle.

Once accepted, the "economic romanticism" that integrates Chinese and Western, benevolence and righteousness plus natural closeness will completely go astray.

Liu Yu didn't want Dashun to appear on the road of "restoring the old means of production and exchange, thereby restoring the old ownership relations and the old society", so he could only expand outward as much as possible, use external expansion to share the pain of initial industrialization, and transfer the pain to the outside.

Gradually raise this freak that can kill Dashun, and don't let the emperor and the court see its fangs before it has the ability to eat people.

This is also the reason why he didn't dare to think about the textile industry before he got the external market. He would rather invest huge amounts of money in long-term and expensive plans such as steam engines and railways, rather than start with the textile industry that looks easier and more profitable.

Without an external market, all the money earned is internal money, and small farmers can go bankrupt in a matter of minutes. In order to stabilize his country, the emperor will definitely smash all the textile machines.

The emperor's "curing the root cause and the end" is aimed at the feudal empire of Dashun. Liu Yu can ensure this. No one can do anything about it. Just wait for death.

Seeing Liu Yu shaking his head vigorously, Li Gan's heart sank, and then he felt relieved again.

I thought to myself, let alone you don't have a way to cure the symptoms and the root cause, even the Qin Emperor, Han Wu, Tang Zong and Ming Zu, who has achieved a permanent stability of the country?

The depression was gone, and he was more open-minded. He asked Liu Yu with a smile: "Whale Sea Immigration, Nanyang Survival, Mongolian Colonization, Migration to the Western Regions, these are all temporary solutions, right?"

Liu Yu also laughed and added: "Maybe the Academy of Sciences can come up with a way to produce ten stones per mu, who knows."

"Hahahahaha... If it can be done, I will reward him with a horse in the Forbidden City and a first-class civil service uniform. It is not too much to make him a viscount for this achievement."

The emperor just thought it was a joke. After laughing, he didn't believe it at all. He was just thinking about the temporary solution of immigration. He waved his hand and asked everyone to disperse first. He only asked Liu Yu and Jiang Chen to take turns to be on duty here after the court meeting every day. If there is an urgent matter, he will be summoned to discuss it together. If it is not an urgent matter, you can directly hand the letter to Lu Zhilei, and Tianyou Hall will handle it according to the procedure.