Noticing the awkward look on the expressions of Li Chuanwen and Niu Fude, Zhao Junchen felt something bad in his heart and asked again: "What is going on?"
After Niu Fude hesitated for a moment, he carefully explained: "This civil uprising... is actually related to your agricultural reform plan, Zhao Gechen..."
Zhao Junchen took a slow breath, vaguely guessing something.
Li Chuanwen continued: "This person is Tongzhi of Xingzhou... You should be familiar with the cabinet minister. His name is Liu Zimin, and he was the seventh in the top two in the last palace examination... His sister Liu Rui was also in Zhao State. I stayed in the mansion for a while..."
While speaking, Li Chuanwen glanced at Zhao Junchen cautiously.
Zhao Junchen waved his hand impatiently and said: "I know who Liu Zimin is. During the last Spring Imperial Examination, I met him by chance. This man's late father Liu Wencai was once one of the leaders of the Qing Dynasty in the court, but he himself sought death and offended him. Zhou Shangjing's reputation soon fell into disrepute. Liu Zimin and Liu Rui's siblings were also implicated, and their lives were extremely miserable. Liu Zimin was eager to find a supporter for himself.
Considering that the Liu family still has some influence and connections in Qingliu, this pavilion wanted to use Liu Zimin to improve our reputation, so we took this person under our sect and let him take advantage of the opportunity of spring to move around. Try to win over some of the candidates for the examination for our own use.
It has to be said that Liu Zimin did a good job at the beginning and quickly recruited many potential new scholars for this pavilion. This pavilion also reciprocated the favor and did not treat him badly. He arranged a job for him as a fellow scholar in Xingzhou. ...But to be honest, I don't like this person. He has not inherited his father's character at all. Instead, he is dedicated to working without any limits. I have only met his sister Liu Rui a few times, but he In order to pretend to be powerful, he did not care about his sister's innocent reputation who had not yet left the court, and hinted everywhere that there was an unclear relationship between me and Liu Rui. I had already tolerated him for a long time.
What's more, this pavilion now has the great victory in Shaanxi and Gansu, the great achievements of recovering the Hetao, and has married another Qingliu leader, the granddaughter of the old Cui Mian of the former pavilion. As the wife of the royal family, the reputation of the government and the public has been gradually reversed, and there is no need to use him anymore. The Liu family's connections can help improve your reputation, so you don't have to worry about anything, just say what you have to say!"
After hearing what Zhao Junchen said, Li Chuanwen and Niu Fude immediately felt relieved.
The two of them were also affected by the rumors spread by Liu Zimin just now, and mistakenly believed that there was an ambiguous relationship between Zhao Junchen and Liu Zimin's sister Liu Rui, so they were secretly scrupulous and hesitated to speak.
Now that he saw that Zhao Junchen had no good impression of Liu Zimin, Li Chuanwen no longer had any scruples, shook his head and sighed: "Since Zhao Junchen started to implement agricultural reforms, the government and the opposition have never been able to understand your painstaking efforts, and they have been trying in every possible way. Obstruction, indifference, and progress are not going smoothly...
However, Liu Zimin is the complete opposite. He is your disciple, and he wants to please you. Naturally, he fully supports the agricultural reform and is particularly active. However, he uses too much force when doing things, so instead It’s counterproductive and counterproductive.”
Niu Fude further explained: "One of the main contents of Zhao Gechen's agricultural reform policy is to select some barren land and no longer plant mainstream foods such as sorghum and wheat, but instead plant corn and cold-resistant sweet potatoes. And new crops with high yields are logically a good thing...
However, according to the information obtained by the students and Mr. Li, Liu Zimin actually used various drastic measures in order to further implement this policy. He forcibly ordered all farmers in Xingzhou, regardless of whether their fields were barren or fertile.
, are all forced to plant corn, sweet potatoes, etc. Even if a lot of land has been planted with wheat, sorghum, etc., the seedlings still have to be destroyed and replanted...
As a result, not only the lower-class farmers were full of resentment, but also the local gentry and landlords were offended. They soon forced the local people to rebel, leading to a civil unrest! Until the students and Mr. Li left Xingzhou, this
The civil unrest still shows no sign of calming down, but is getting worse!"
After hearing this explanation from Li Chuanwen and Niu Fude, even Zhao Junchen, who had always been a serious man, couldn't help but change his expression at this time, and couldn't help but start swearing.
Zhao Junchen has known for a long time that the "Zhao Party" he formed is essentially a coalition of corrupt officials and interests. His cronies are all useless, selfish and short-sighted people who will inevitably hold him back and cause trouble. But when he saw
With a "pig teammate" like Liu Zimin, Zhao Junchen still couldn't help but break his defense.
*
Since coming to this world, Zhao Junchen has been deeply aware that the top priority of this era is "stabilizing agriculture".
As long as agriculture and farmers can be stabilized, no matter how big a problem is, it can be resolved calmly; if agriculture and farmers cannot be stabilized, no matter how small a problem is, it can become the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Historians of later generations often lamented the destruction of the buds of capitalism in the late Ming Dynasty, believing that the Chinese nation missed the opportunity to enter capitalism. Zhao Junchen once strongly agreed with this view, and came to this era
Later, I also wanted to strengthen the capitalist class, develop capitalism, and then use the power of capitalism to transform this era - just like what is written in most online novels.
But now, Zhao Junchen has completely scorned this view and idea.
The more Zhao Junchen understands this era, the more he understands one thing - only sea power civilization can give birth to capitalism, while the Ming Dynasty was a purely land power civilization, and it was absolutely impossible to give birth to capitalism!
Why do you say this? According to the textbook, primitive accumulation is necessary in the early stage of capitalism, and this primitive accumulation mainly uses violent means to separate direct producers from the means of production, allowing monetary wealth to quickly concentrate on a few people.
The historical process in hand.
In short, in the early days of capitalism, the vast majority of the people at the bottom were severely exploited, and their lives were far less miserable than those of the poor tenants in the agricultural era, so they were bound to rise up and resist.
Under such circumstances, sea power civilizations can choose to establish colonies overseas and exploit the colonial people. Not only can they share the pressure of being exploited by their own people, but once they encounter colonial people rising up to resist, they can also quickly transfer the resources they exploited in the colonies.
The large amount of wealth has prevented the original accumulation of capitalism from being lost, and wealth is still concentrated in the hands of a few people.
But land power civilization is different. It has no motivation to open up overseas colonies. Once it wants to carry out primitive accumulation in the early stage of capitalism, it will inevitably focus on exploiting its own people. After the domestic people cannot bear the exploitation and rise up to resist, because everyone will live
On the same land, the exploiters have no way to escape, nor can they transfer their wealth. They will soon be impacted, their wealth will be forcibly redistributed, and the initial primitive accumulation will soon be wasted!
Take the history of the Ming Dynasty that Zhao Junchen was familiar with as an example. The reason why the buds of capitalism were born at the end of the Ming Dynasty was because businessmen across the southeast generally evaded taxes, so they could quickly accumulate wealth, but they were so
After large-scale tax evasion, all the tax burden was passed on to the poor poor people in the northwest. The poor people were overwhelmed and couldn't bear it anymore. They finally decided to lift the table and resist. As Li Zicheng shouted the slogan "Equal land, no grain"
, the Ming Dynasty quickly collapsed, and the sprouts of capitalism in the southeast were naturally overwhelmed and never finished.
From this point of view, the buds of capitalism in the late Ming Dynasty will inevitably be wiped out and will never develop. This is a law of history and there is nothing to regret at all.
Therefore, after Zhao Junchen came to this era, he did not rush to develop capitalism. Instead, he has been secretly suppressing the growth of the buds of capitalism. His various methods - whether it is commercial tax reform, or Sichuan salt development, and
Or agricultural reforms, all for the purpose of "stabilizing agriculture" and minimizing the pressure on farmers in the Ming Dynasty.
In Zhao Junchen's plan, if he really wants to develop capitalism, he must wait until his ocean-going plan has achieved initial results, and the purely land-power civilization of the Chinese nation has gradually acquired some maritime power attributes. At the same time, the bottom farmers of the Ming Dynasty
There must also be a preliminary improvement in the living conditions of the people, and then they can be gradually improved. There is no need to rush.
In Zhao Junchen's view, this is the only feasible strategy and also Zhao Junchen's real long-term goal.
Now, with the Little Ice Age approaching, the most important thing in Zhao Junchen's mind is the thorough implementation of agricultural reform. Compared with agricultural reform, whether it is ocean trade or the penetration of military power, both are of greater importance.
Wait and wait.
In order to promote agricultural reform, Zhao Junchen was even willing to sacrifice part of his own interests, even if he made himself the target of public criticism and even worsened his own situation.
But it is obvious that Zhao Junchen's agricultural reform plan has offended too many vested interests, and there are still many obstacles during its implementation, and it is currently in a stalemate.
Liu Zimin's approach undoubtedly gave the opposition forces an excellent opportunity to block Zhao Junchen's agricultural reform plan again, causing Zhao Junchen's agricultural reform plan to suffer a serious setback!
Thinking of this, Zhao Junchen wished he could find Liu Zimin immediately, slap him with his own hands, or even kill him with a knife!
But things like politics are so helpless sometimes. Although Zhao Junchen hated Liu Zimin with a itch, he also knew very well that not only could he not take the initiative to punish Liu Zimin at this time, but he had to hold back his heart.
Angry, stand up and protect Liu Zimin with all your strength, and find a way to wipe Liu Zimin's butt.