Chapter 254: The Way of the Devil, in Accord with Human Nature
Chapter 254: The Way of the Devil, in Accord with Human Nature (Part 2)
Huo Jing tried every possible means to divert the blame to Prince Yu.
Seeing that Huo Jing was unyielding, these nobles could do nothing about it. Because Huo Jing was from Northern Zhili, they had no place to threaten him.
Prince Yu is still in the capital to supervise the country, so everyone wants to launch a campaign of Jingtian Jingnan, but there is no chance.
But what Huo Jing said was not wrong. As long as Prince Yu came to the throne, the world would be peaceful again.
The dark ages must be endured first.
Many wealthy and powerful people began to collude secretly.
One person's plan is short, but everyone's plan is long.
It really made them come up with a solution.
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...
Xu Qing was busy with the abolition of slavery throughout the first month of the year.
As for the fact that officials and gentry had to serve and pay taxes together, it was actually very simple. A government decree could abolish the privileges of officials and gentry directly from a legal perspective.
The problem is that the people who executed this decree were still officials and gentry!
Even if people from the Fushe were sent to carry out the mission, it would make no difference, because many members of the Fushe were also vested interests, or were candidate interest groups.
So there is no solution.
Anyway, let them admit it first.
Compared with officials and gentry serving as officials and paying taxes together, abolishing slavery is the key point.
However, what surprised Xu Qing was that the abolition of slavery was actually progressing very smoothly.
Logically speaking, the resistance would be great.
Xu Qing must have felt something fishy was going on.
He first sent people to investigate openly and secretly, and soon got the result, then he called Xie Quan to discuss.
After seeing the results, Xie Quan had to admit that these gentry were all experts in doing bad things.
Slavery was indeed abolished.
The key is that they have changed their tactics.
This new practice was called “contract labor.”
The gentry found the leader among the original slaves, and under the leadership of the leader, they selected a group of young and strong people from the original slaves and signed a contract of contract for a certain period of time.
After signing, these leaders can get a body-binding fee.
As for these contract workers, after signing the contract, they can only work for their masters within the contract period.
You are not allowed to go home during work.
But you can choose not to sign. If you don't sign, you will have no relationship with your master without slavery, so you deserve to starve to death.
Moreover, these household slave leaders can make money from this, which gives them more motivation to make this happen.
They not only cooperated with the original masters, but also cooperated with the large workshops in Jiangning Prefecture and Yingtian Prefecture.
What the workshop fears most is the loss of skilled workers. With the constraints of this kind of indenture, it will naturally be much more convenient.
Because the labor contract has a time limit, workers will definitely be exploited as much as possible during the employment period.
This is the same as renting cattle and horses. If you raise cattle and horses yourself, you will take good care of them. If you rent them, they cannot be used for your mission without strong constraints.
As the saying goes in Xu Qing's previous life, if it's not your car, you will definitely stand up and pedal hard.
Xie Quan even laughed. These people were really cruel.
In fact, the original servants were more likely to cheat and slack off in their work. Although they did not get paid, they did not work as hard as they do now.
The key point is that these wealthy and powerful people also took the opportunity to get rid of a large number of old, weak, sick and disabled slaves, which was equivalent to reducing the burden.
Most of these elderly, weak, sick and disabled people have young and strong family members.
Therefore, even for the sake of having food to eat for their families, they had to sign the indenture.
If we don’t sign, our whole family will starve to death.
Because as a domestic slave, they definitely had no land.
The people who lost their land had to work like slaves, even if they were free, and their personal dependence was also very serious.
The key point is that it is not only the conservative gentry who are doing this. The gentry and nobles who have transformed into workshop owners under Xu Qing are also very supportive of it.
This is called interest bundling.
Xu Qing is an expert in this art, and it is clear that today's wealthy and powerful people have learned it.
Boomerang!
Xie Quan was fully aware of the dangers of this move, which might even cause Xu Qing and the imperial court to lose the support of the people.
He asserted: "Mr. Xu, the most urgent task is to prohibit the abolition of bondage indentures and readjust the abolition policy before the situation becomes too serious."
He knew in his heart that this was not a good thing.
The orders change every day.
Xu Qing smiled and said, "Don't worry, sir. It's not a big deal."
Xie Quan's expression relaxed: "So Gongming, you already had a plan?"
After all, he is Xu Gongming, full of wisdom and strategies.
Xu Qing: "It's not like there's a solution in advance. After all, abolishing slavery is such a big thing, if there's no corresponding money and food preparation, it's like giving birth but not raising people. The fundamental purpose of abolishing slavery is to snatch the population away from the gentry and nobles. Now everyone is desperate and has to choose to become indentured laborers, but what if there are other ways out?"
Xu Qing did not anticipate the gentry's response in advance, but he was indeed prepared.
That's road construction!
No matter when and where, using work as a substitute for relief and building large-scale infrastructure are good ideas to absorb the working population.
And there are cement workshops, which can not only build roads, but also build houses, reservoirs, river embankments...
After all, it has many uses.
However, Xu Qing finally revealed his true intentions.
With a road in place, it would be much easier to suppress the rebellion in the future.
Why is it so difficult to pacify the three southwestern provinces, but so easy to quell in the Central Plains? The key lies in the "road".
In the past, the Qin State built straight roads and its mobility was the best among the six states, which was also one of the reasons why the Qin State unified the world.
Because Nanzhili had successfully cleared the land before, the government had yellow books of land in various places. With the yellow books, building roads would naturally be much easier.
Xu Qing directly brought out the details and discussed them with Xie Quan.
Building roads is also a good thing for the wealthy and powerful.
The key is how to unify the standards and...
Xie Quan had to admire Xu Qing's genius idea for coming up with the idea of bidding.
The gentry and nobles can obtain the qualification to build roads by bidding, and then within a certain period of time, the right to road will belong to the gentry and nobles.
If there are no local nobles willing to participate, the government will pay for the road construction itself.
Of course, it is now in the discussion stage, and how to implement it specifically needs to be decided by the Cabinet and the Imperial Household Department.
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Yingtian Prefecture, temporary cabinet.
Xu Qing also specially invited the resigned Liang Ge Lao.
When Liang Ge Lao came back from retirement, he heard that Xu Qing had been resurrected. He was so shocked that he sat up from his dying illness and his face has been rosy recently.
When Huo Jing saw Lao Liang, he naturally found him unpleasant. In addition, Chen Zhong from the Imperial Household Department was also among them.
He mainly represented the opinions of the Imperial Household Department.
Xu Qing gave a general idea of what happened.
When Huo Jing heard about the contract laborers, he was secretly delighted that Xu Qing had finally been humiliated.
I didn’t expect Xu Qing to have a solution.
But he was quite surprised when he heard the rest.
Because Xu Qing plans to take out 90% of the bidding rights and share them among everyone.
If this thing is sold, it is possible to create the richest man in a state capital in a poor place.
Huo Jing didn't expect such a good thing to happen.
He had worked in the Inspectorate for so many years and had received a lot of charcoal and ice gifts, but they were just enough to support himself, no way could he make a fortune.
He now completely despises those damn conservative nobles.
Every time we ask the clean people from the Inspectorate to lead the charge, they only contribute a small amount.
Look at Xu Liushou, he is worthy of being a sage of the time, and every move he makes is like a hen that lays golden eggs.
"Xu Gongming is better than my own grandfather!" Even with Huo Jing's upright moral integrity, at this moment, he couldn't help but sing praises for Xu Qing in his heart.
Of course, this is also the benefit of being the prime minister of the cabinet.
The only thing that made Huo Jing unhappy was why did Lao Liang, the Prime Minister who had just stepped down, also have one?
But Huo Jing changed his mind and realized that everyone has to step down one day.
From this perspective, Xu Gongming is really an open-minded person.
Huo Jing thought again that if he did not support this matter, Xu Qing would probably ask him to get out of the cabinet on the spot!
Only a fool would not support such a benevolent policy.
Huo Jing became the Prime Minister for the benefit of the people of the world.
It can be said that as long as it is a benevolent policy, I will support it even if there are tens of thousands of people against me!
He now has the consciousness of a martyr.
Chen Zhong couldn't stop smiling.
Look at Xu Liushou, he is the real master.
Chen Zhong came to this prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River, but was worried that he could not find any opportunity to make money.
After all, the emperor is watching nearby.
He can't eat in an ugly way.
However, the eunuchs' methods of making money were crude to begin with, and it was impossible not to cause public outrage.
After all, it was Xu Liushou, who could make clouds and rain with a flip of his hand.
It helps everyone make money without causing public resentment.
Small meetings are held for big matters. Now that the giants in Nanzhili have reached a consensus, the remaining matters will naturally be shown to the emperor. As long as the emperor nods, everyone can make money with confidence.
Of course, the sale of bidding rights was a tacit agreement. There was no need to disturb the emperor's quiet meditation with such a small matter.
The world is so vast, is there anything more important than your Majesty's cultivation of immortality?
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The imperial palace of Yingtian Prefecture - Yannian Palace.
The old emperor looked at the memorial brought by Xu Qing and nodded, saying, "These bastards are always up to no good. It's better for you to do things in a trustworthy way. Just do as the memorial says."
"According to the order."
The old emperor continued, "But these road rights are temporarily owned by the gentry and nobles. Will there be any hidden dangers?"
Xu Qing: "It is indeed a big hidden danger."
Old Emperor: "What solution do you have?"
Xu Qing: "I feel that the roads of the world are like human blood vessels. As long as the blood vessels exist, once they become sick, the disease will naturally be cured by following the prescribed medicine."
The old emperor nodded with satisfaction and waved his hand, saying, "Go."
In fact, building roads will make it easier for the imperial army to quell the rebellion. Any wealthy and powerful nobles with brains can see that, but the problem is that there are too many benefits to having road rights in their own hands.
The simplest way is to charge tolls for other people's goods, but not charge for your own goods, and directly monopolize the local profitable business from the source...
If you don't fight for this kind of thing, others will, and then destroy your family.
After all, the wealthy and powerful are not a monolithic group, and their internal struggles are no less intense than those in the imperial court.
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After the bigwigs discussed it, the emperor approved and the new policy was quickly announced.
To put it bluntly, the imperial court did not care about private road construction before, but now it has been clearly stipulated that it is not allowed for the gentry to build roads privately.
Firstly, these roads may not all be on one’s own land; secondly, the imperial court has no control over your construction, and it is only a matter of words for them to destroy them.
By then, your road will be repaired but it will be demolished directly, and you will have no place to cry.
Moreover, the imperial court was successful in clearing farmland in Southern Zhili and was able to make plans for the overall situation. As long as they cooperated with the court in building roads, there would naturally be mountains of gold and silver by then.
This is a good thing to get rich.
In addition, Xu Qing criticized the contract labor system in newspapers such as Daming Pao, and then mentioned that building roads, river embankments, reservoirs, etc. required a large number of labor services.
These are good things that benefit the community and can earn money to support the family.
The words in the newspaper are very straightforward. Ordinary people cannot understand the newspaper, but there are always literate people in a village. It is just the same to read them to everyone when the time comes. Besides, Xu Qing has also organized storytellers from the Embroidered Uniform Guard to go to the countryside to spread the word.
These people have badges of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and most people don't dare to stop them.
If there are really people who don't want to live, the Embroidered Uniform Guards and the Neichang will naturally come and kill them.
Because Chen Zhong has great benefits in there, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Internal Factory Tiqi of Nanzhili are strictly ordered to cooperate with this matter.
Once the pressure came up, the people below dared not to fool around.
To say that the effect is particularly good, that’s definitely not the case, but at least it can achieve a basic effect.
This is enough.
And as soon as the news of this bidding came out, rumors started flying everywhere.
Those who have connections will naturally find ways to get in, and those who don’t will also try their best to find ways to get some soup. If you can’t even get some soup, you deserve to be poor.
But the shady dealings this time were beyond the imagination of many wealthy and powerful people.
Although Xu Qing deliberately reserved 10% of the bidding rights, saying that it was to give people a fair chance to compete, in fact, the rules were set by Xu Qing.
Xu Qing then used the 10% profit to organize a special training course for the wealthy people in Jiangning Prefecture.
Only through training can you have the opportunity to obtain special treatment.
To put it bluntly, it is to carry out internal rectification.
After a purge, unqualified gentry naturally fell behind, and some gentry who were originally lagging behind got the opportunity to advance.
After all, it’s because of the source of living water.
Without struggle, how can others get to the top?
If others cannot get promoted, won’t everyone lose the motivation to move forward?
The idea of a dynasty that lasts forever is itself against human nature.
Xu Tianmo, oh no…Xu Liushou is just following human nature.
(End of this chapter)