Zhang Tianlun accompanied Li Mi all the way from Zhangye to Jiuquan City.
We had to cross the desert to enter Guazhou. Zhang Tianlun said to Li Mi:
"Mi Gong, let's rest in Jiuquan first and find a caravan before heading to Guazhou."
Li Mi nodded. He was also familiar with geography and knew that the desert between Jiuquan and Guazhou was no joke. For the sake of safety, it was better to go to the city first.
Compared with Wuwei and Zhangye, the scale of Jiuquan City is much smaller.
However, Jiuquan is still prosperous beyond Li Mi's expectation. Is this really Hexi?
The Guanzhong area that was once prosperous in the Tang Dynasty was not as prosperous as Hexi!
Walking into this Jiuquan City, it is quite different from Zhangye.
The city of Zhangye is very orderly, and there are public officials patrolling the streets everywhere. Zhang Tianlun heard that there are tax collectors responsible for collecting taxes, police officers responsible for public security, and "urban management" responsible for sanitation and street order.
It was said that there were thousands of people in Zhangye City eating imperial food, which made Li Bi speechless.
You must know that the officials who manage Chang'an City, including the government officials who do not receive salaries, are only a thousand.
And those in Zhangye City who eat the royal rations have to get their salary every month.
No wonder the order in Zhangye City is so good. With so many officials in charge, how can the order be bad?
Li Mi also heard that the laws in Zhangye City were shockingly detailed.
For example, there are rules for setting up stalls. Not every place can set up stalls. In some places, stalls can only be set up at night.
Vendors setting up stalls are responsible for cleaning their own stalls. If the hygiene inspection fails, the "urban management" will impose a fine.
For example, not all restaurants can be opened in any house. They must register with the tax department to pay taxes, and ensure that there is a fire-extinguishing water tank in the back kitchen. Restaurants that are open at night cannot be opened near residential buildings.
These horrifyingly detailed laws were promulgated by Cui Tao after he became the magistrate of the state.
These laws regulate almost all aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation.
How does a carriage travel, and what should be done if a carriage hits someone.
How to build a new house, and how to repair an old house after it collapses.
These detailed regulations and a large number of officials are the fundamental reason why Zhangye can maintain order in the bustling city.
In Li Mi's opinion, this Cui Tao should be a Legalist believer.
This kind of regulation of all aspects of people's lives through laws, so that everyone can live under an orderly framework, isn't this what the Legalists say: "No distinction between relatives and strangers, no distinction between high and low, and one is determined by the law."
However, in Li Mi's view, Zhangyecheng's rules were too strict.
Although compared with Qin Faba who frequently cut off his feet, most of the consequences of breaking the law in Zhangye City are fines.
But Li Mi also saw that the order of Confucian etiquette in Zhangye City had been disintegrated under detailed laws.
When many people encounter problems, they will go to the "courts" set up by the government for mediation or litigation, instead of relying on the clan for judgment.
The order established through fines naturally filled the entire Zhangye City with a luxurious atmosphere of chasing money.
This made Li Mi smell the same dangerous smell as Chang'an City in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Under the surface of order in Zhangye City, a money-oriented order is being established. Not only are the people pursuing interests, but even the government offices and Li Changfangzheng in Zhangye City are pursuing "political achievements."
This "political achievement" is naturally the ability to make money.
This smell is really familiar to Li Mi.
In Li Mi's view, the biggest foundation for Zhangye's prosperity is Cui Tao, the magistrate who now leads Zhangye.
All of this relies on Cui Tao's personal moral self-discipline and personal ability to control Zhangye's chariot. Just like the emperor in the early Kaiyuan years, once the person in power begins to lose his morality, the system will quickly deteriorate.
These thousands of officials will become vampires who exploit the people layer by layer.
And all this was not what Li Mi thought of himself, it was all an article he saw in the Longyou newspaper.
This article titled "A Brief Discussion on the Gains and Losses of the Qin System" is easy to understand and does not use any allusions.
But the reflection on the system of the Qin Dynasty is very profound, especially the last sentence: "In the hands of the First Emperor, the Qin system was a way to unify the six countries, enrich the country and strengthen the army, but in the hands of the second Qin Dynasty, Hu Hai, it was a way to harm the people and exploit the world."
The art of decay."
"After the death of Qin II, many officials served from the time of the First Emperor to the period of Qin II. The same Qin laws and the same executive officials can achieve completely opposite effects. This fully illustrates the instability of the Legalist system.
sex."
This article deeply impressed Li Bi. Isn't the Emperor the most recent example of this article?
If King Jianning always governed Longyou like this, Li Mi would have to worry that King Jianning would not become an emperor again in the future.
But after entering Jiuquan, the prosperity here is different from the prosperity in Zhangye.
There are not so many government servants and officials on the streets, but the shops can be operated in a proper manner, and there are not as many exaggerated signboards as there are in Zhangye.
Li Mi asked Zhang Tianlun: "This Jiuquan seems to be different from Zhangye. There are so few official posts on this street. How can these shops abide by the rules?"
Li Mi had been a grassroots official, so he certainly knew the difficulty of "governing the people".
If there are no regulations from the government, then the owners of each store will put their products on the street, or directly ask the waiters to pull people into the store on the street.
Various stores compete directly with each other, and the final result is that no one can operate well.
Although Li Bi instinctively hated the "Qin Law", he had to agree that there would be no rule without rules. If no restrictions were imposed on the people, the final result would be chaos and disorder.
Zhang Tianlun said: "Mi Gong, this Jiuquan is different from Zhangye. Jiuquan is managed by various industry associations."
“What is an industry association?”
Zhang Tianlun said: "I also read it on the forum, not in the newspaper."
"Every industry in Jiuquan has its own association. For example, the restaurant where you eat has a catering association. The members of the association are all practitioners. The practitioners themselves elect a president of the association, who is the 'head' of the association."
"The head of the association must meet with the members of the association every month to formulate the association's bylaws. Stores that fail to implement the industry bylaws will be warned or even fined by the association. If they fail to correct their mistakes, they will be expelled from the association."
Li Mi asked: "Why do you have to join this association?"
Zhang Tianlun said: "The association can coordinate conflicts between various stores, and the association can also negotiate in the name of the entire industry to get greater discounts."
Seeing that Li Mi still didn't understand, Zhang Tianlun said:
"They also said that the Catering Association can negotiate prices with the Liquor Industry Association. If we negotiate with so many restaurants together, the price of buying wine will definitely be much cheaper than negotiating with a single restaurant."
"If you don't join the association, you will not only be squeezed out by your peers, but the cost will also be much higher than those of your peers who join the association."
"The heads of various industries have to go to the Governor's Mansion every month to discuss the development of Jiuquan with Zeng Zhizhou."
Li Mi was stunned for a moment and asked: "Isn't this the Mo family's association?"