Lian Guoshi also laughed and said happily: "Brother Yu said it a bit falsely. I just want to hear your point of view Ziying. Every time I hear your thoughts and opinions, Brother Yu will feel enlightened and benefit a lot. Aftertaste
It’s so long.”
"Haha, Brother Jun Yu exaggerated, but I feel that when our officials in Da Zhou do things, they focus more on being an official, and ignore that being an official should first do things. The purpose and results of doing things must be unified. Only in accordance with
It is the duty of an official to do things with our own intention, to achieve the goal, to achieve the results, and to meet our intentions. However, many of us find it difficult to do this even though we are Jinshi candidates."
Feng Ziying's words were a bit convoluted, but Lian Guoshi still understood. His face became serious and he nodded: "Ziying, Brother Yu, I hope to hear your opinions today."
"Okay." Feng Ziying was not polite, "When I explain my ideals of becoming an official, I will first ask some questions about the current situation of our Great Zhou Dynasty for you and me to discuss. After confirming the basics of our views,
After we agree, this will help me explain my future ideas in the next step."
Lian Guoshi nodded, "This is what it should be."
"Then the first question, brother Jun Yu, what do you think is better or worse between the Great Zhou Dynasty now and the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty? How is the situation in the eighth year of Yonglong compared to twenty years ago, that is, the twentieth year of Yuanxi?"
It was a big question at the beginning, and he was a little confused when asked about Lian Guo. Even though he was born as a top scholar and had been practicing in the Hanlin Academy for several years, he still felt that this question was a bit difficult to answer.
After pondering for a long time, Lian Guoshi said: "It depends on how to say it, or from what aspects. The Great Zhou Dynasty was basically established on the ruins of the former Ming Dynasty. Taizu's Northern Expedition? From Nanzhi, Jiangxi to Shandong and
Northern Zhili has experienced wars, but to be honest, compared with the situation after the Northern Expedition of the Ming Dynasty expelled the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the situation was much better at the founding of the Zhou Dynasty. In the founding era, the officials governed the country clearly and people were calm. The internal situation must be good.
But at that time, the remnants of the former Ming Dynasty still existed, and the Mongolian tribes in the north still existed..."
"Huh? How about comparing with now?" Feng Ziying asked with a smile.
After practicing state affairs for a long time, he sighed. "It should have been better back then? Maybe the people's livelihood in various places was not as prosperous as it is now? But the conflict between the government and the people, and the conflict between the people and the gentry were far less intense than they are now? The trouble of foreign enemies? Although the Mongolian power in the north was also very strong at the time
, but in Brother Yu’s personal opinion, it is not as threatening as the current Jianzhou Jurchen.”
"Okay, how does the current situation compare with Yuan Xi's 20 years?" Feng Ziying asked again.
Lian Guoshi sighed again, "Ziying wants to say that the 20th year of Yuanxi is a dividing point, right? The 20th year of Yuanxi should be the most prosperous time of our Great Zhou Dynasty? Whether it is foreign enemies or internal troubles, it is at its best.
At that time? The imperial court had abundant financial resources? The local public security was good? ..."
Seeing Lian Guoshi sighing and shaking his head in embarrassment, Feng Ziying didn't feel sorry for herself.
"What now? Since the 20th year of Yuanxi, our great Zhou Dynasty seems to have begun to have bad years? There have been successive droughts in the north, floods in Huguang, Jiangnan has been harassed by Japanese pirates, and the Renchen Japanese pirates started in the 32nd year of Yuanxi.
The rebellion lasted until the thirty-eighth year of Yuanxi, and finally exhausted the financial resources of the imperial court. Well, we cannot attribute all this to the Japanese Rebellion of Imchen. From the fifteenth year of Yuanxi to the thirty-second year of Yuanxi, there were eighteen years
The Supreme Emperor made six trips to the south of the Yangtze River, averaging once every three years. How much did it cost?"
Feng Ziying's unceremonious questioning left Lian Guoshi speechless.
Everyone in the imperial court has always tacitly agreed on the reason why the current situation is so tight and difficult. The Liuxia Jiangnan and the Japanese Rebellion in Imjin are the biggest reasons, and there is no other reason to explain it.
In a sense, the Six Expeditions to the South of the Yangtze River resulted in a large amount of treasury emptiness, the prevalence of extravagance in the South of the Yangtze River, the prevalence of officials selling their posts, and the prevalence of corruption, which in turn affected the guarantee of the nine-border defense.
The decline of the imperial court's control in Liaodong made the Japanese power minister Sekihaku Toyotomi Hideyoshi feel that he had an opportunity to take advantage of Korea, which led to the occurrence of the Imjin Japanese Rebellion.
In turn, the Imjin Japanese Rebellion for six consecutive years directly brought down the finances of the Great Zhou Dynasty. After the end of the Imjin Japanese Rebellion, the imperial court was no longer able to maintain its original guarantee and support for the statues in Jiliao Town. It also contributed to the Jurchen Jurchen in Jianzhou in disguise
Taking advantage of the opportunity to rise, this becomes a vicious cycle.
The joint relationship between the two made the impression of the Supreme Emperor very bad in the minds of northern scholars.
"The current situation is definitely better than it was in the 42nd year of Yuanxi. But Ziying, I know what you want to say. The problems and holes left by the Supreme Emperor have not been completely solved until now. This will definitely require a process."
Lian Guoshi thought for a moment before continuing: "The princes of the imperial court are also working hard to find countermeasures, but..."
"Jun Yu, I think that if we want to do something, we must first determine the goals, then refine the goals, and then find and designate corresponding strategies one by one based on these detailed goals." Feng Ziying stopped arguing with Lian Guoshi and opened up her own ideas.
, "The current situation of the court is only slightly better than when the emperor succeeded to the throne. In fact, the first year of Yonglong was already a very dangerous time. The emperor's Zen position may not be without exhaustion, right?"
There is no answer to this. Everyone understands it, but they cannot say it. Only these two people can say it.
Lian Guoshi nodded slightly.
"If we can't find the correct solution strategy and path to the current situation, I'm afraid we will soon fall into trouble. The strategy of opening up the sea has slightly alleviated the court's financial crisis, but this is treating the symptoms rather than the root cause..." Feng Zi
English is very confident. He proposed the strategy of opening up the sea, so he naturally has the confidence to judge it.
“The biggest problems we are facing now are: first, the Jurchens and Mongols, who are invaded by foreign countries, need to increase investment in border affairs; but the bigger problem is internal worries. There are several aspects of internal worries. First, the imperial court has a serious lack of financial resources, which directly restricts the development of border affairs.
Expenditures on border affairs, water conservancy, post roads and many other aspects; the second is the administrative atmosphere in the central and central regions. Corruption is rampant among officials, but they do not think about how to change the predicament of the imperial court. Many officials stretch their necks to run for official positions, pay and accept bribes.
The third is the pressure on land and food brought by population growth. There are only so many mature fields, but the population is growing too fast, and newly cultivated land is limited. Otherwise, there is insufficient fertility or difficulty in irrigation. Once there is a flood or drought,
, the refugees will quickly swarm, and then be used by those such as the White Lotus Sect and the Wenxiang Sect, posing a huge threat to the place..."
Feng Ziying said five or six things in one breath, which made Lian Guo Shi nod his head repeatedly. These were all stated clearly, but he did not summarize them.
"There are so many problems, how to solve them? There are so many problems, where should I start?" Feng Ziying looked at Lian Guo Shi and asked with a smile: "I hope Brother Junyu can teach me."
Lian Guoshi smiled bitterly, "Ziying, please stop teasing Brother Yu. If Brother Yu had this ability, he wouldn't have been idle in the Hanlin Academy for several years. Brother Yu really wants to hear your thoughts now."
"Brother Jun Yu, I have a lot of ideas, but I can't realize them, so I'm willing to take the initiative to go to small places like Yongping Mansion to see if I can find some opportunities to realize some of my inner thoughts." Feng Ziying spread her hands, "
After all, it is actually nothing more than a problem of people and money. All these problems will ultimately come down to these two points: money and people. What do you think, brother Junyu?"
Lian Guo Shi thought about it and felt that although Feng Ziying's words were vulgar, he still made the truth clear. As long as money and people are not a problem, what else is the problem?
"Then how to solve the problem of money and people?" Lian Guoshi asked eagerly. He thought that Feng Ziying should have a rather grand but not necessarily rigorous idea. Maybe he could join in and help him improve and even implement it. Now
No, then at least we can have a goal.
"The problem of silver is the most realistic and urgent. The strategy of opening up the sea is an indicator strategy and can solve the problem to a certain extent, but it is far from enough."
Feng Ziying knew that she needed to instill theoretical knowledge of the industrialization process into them. This was difficult, but she had to do it. If not enough people understood and supported her point of view, if she wanted to realize her dream under such a system, it would really be difficult.
It can only be a dream turned into a fantasy.
"..., the traditional land tax is far from meeting the needs of the court, so where does the strategy of open source come from? Sea trade is one aspect, but we should see the impact of the increase in sea trade on silk, tea, porcelain, cotton cloth, and medicinal materials.
, there is a huge demand for ironware, salt and other items, Nanyang and Western Yi need our silk, tea, porcelain, cloth, medicine, iron, Japan and Korea need our silk, tea, iron, porcelain, paper, Mongolia and Uzbekistan
Tibet needs our tea, salt, iron, cloth, and porcelain. These are what we, the Zhou Dynasty, are best at..."
"In addition to the needs of sea trade, the greater demand actually lies within us. To give a simple example, the people's demand for ironware can never be met, and the price of ironware and iron materials is the biggest problem restricting demand. Once solved
In addition to the cost and quality problems of iron materials and iron tools, the demand for firecrackers and artillery alone is massive..."
"..., the reform of the commercial tax system is imminent, but we can't do it yet. We can only do it step by step. The reopening of the Chinese Book School and the preparation of the Ministry of Commerce are actually an opportunity..."
"...Finally, let's talk about people's issues. My understanding of people is that there are two issues. One is the livelihood of the people. People need to make a living. The court should give them enough ways to support their families. Farming is one way.
There are many ways to go. Opening workshops and letting them work is one way. Going out to sea to fish and run boats is another way. Serving as a soldier is also a way to provide food. We need to adopt multiple strategies at the same time, but the most important thing is to give them fields and let them work in workshops.
This should be the easiest way to absorb the largest number of people..."