Chapter 1002: The Past and Present Life of Traveler Wang Mang (Part 1)
Some people are born to be protagonists. Wang Mang believes that he is such a person. After all, he has even encountered such things as time travel. Isn't this a proper protagonist template?
Wang Mang is a third-generation red man. He was born and raised under the red flag in 1970. His grades in school are excellent in all subjects, but he especially hates history.
During the college entrance examination, Wang Mang only scored a score of 20 or so in history, so he only went to a second-tier university. However, Wang Mang didn't care. After all, with his family background, it didn't matter whether he went to university or not.
During a mountain climbing activity in his sophomore year, Wang Mang, who was considered a fat man at that time, fell off a cliff due to an accidental mistake. When he woke up, he found that he had traveled to the late Western Han Dynasty and became a member of the Wang family.
Even if Wang Mang is a novice in history, he still knows about the Han Dynasty, but he has almost no understanding of this period.
Before time travel, Wang Mang also watched time travel, but after he actually time travel, he regretted why he didn't learn history well, so that now his eyesight is completely black, and he doesn't even know who the historical celebrities are in the contemporary era.
Wang Mang had almost zero knowledge of the era he lived in. In his eyes, there was not much difference between this place and another world, but Wang Mang didn't care. After all, he was a time traveler.
Anyone who travels through time must be the protagonist, so even if he doesn't know anything, the whole world will still revolve around him.
Although Wang Mang thought so in his heart, his identity as a time traveler did not inflate him. With step by step and careful calculation, he finally reached the pinnacle of power and prepared to use his 'advanced' ideas to completely reform this world. A rotten country.
Although Wang Mang's history is not good, he still remembers what Mao Zedong said, that is: the people are the most powerful.
Grandpa Mao relied on farmers to conquer the world, but as a time traveler, why can’t I, Wang Mang, do the same?
As a member of the third generation of Reds, Wang Mang was heavily influenced by Red ideas, so in his own New Deal, he also referred to many policies from the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
As for whether it will change history, Wang Mang doesn't care at all. He believes that history has been completely changed since he came to this era.
Wang Mang directly implemented government price control, prohibiting merchants from hoarding goods for speculation. Merchants could buy and sell goods at will if the price was lower than the government's price. When the supply was greater than the demand, the government would buy it at cost, and when the demand was greater than the supply, the government would sell it at normal prices, thereby eliminating the gap between the rich and the poor. .
Wang Mang also implemented a low-rent housing policy and invested in the construction of 5 miles in Chang'an City for the poor to live.
Income tax is collected from handicraftsmen or commercial activities involving buying and selling, which is used to stabilize prices and loan expenditures.
Wang Mang attached great importance to the development of science and technology, and personally participated in the anatomy of the human body, and also invented a relatively sophisticated instrument such as a caliper.
Wang Mang aimed at his idol Mao Zedong, spared no effort to please the people of this era, and used every available method to improve their lives.
But later Wang Mang discovered that no matter how hard he worked for the welfare of the people, the people of this era did not seem to appreciate it.
The power of the common people is not as strong as imagined, and is even far inferior to that of those aristocratic families. Not only does it not help oneself, but it only adds chaos.
It is the common people who promote themselves to heaven, but it is also the common people who betray the revolution and follow the rebels to betray themselves...
All of this made Wang Mang a little confused.
He reformed for the people, even at the expense of offending aristocratic families all over the world. Not only did the people who could benefit from it not appreciate it, but they also supported the aristocratic family to rebel against him.
So what's the point of everything you've done?
Feeling betrayed, Wang Mang gave up his goal of fighting for the people. From now on, everything he did was only for himself.
Of course Wang Mang also knew how much impact his thoughts had on this era, so he kept it in check in the early days of the New Deal.
After giving up his goal of serving the people, Wang Mang began to let himself go completely, and even initiated land reform.
Wang Mang directly ordered the nationalization of land and prohibited private sales. Farmers without land could be allocated a certain amount of land, and any shortfall would be compensated by the state.
Wang Mang also stipulated that the average land per capita was one hundred acres. Households that occupied more land, whether rich or wealthy or ordinary people, must immediately hand over their land unconditionally and distribute it to the poor. The land was not allowed to be sold or mortgaged.
In addition, Wang Mang also stipulated that the state monopolizes state-owned enterprises policy, and wine, iron, and salt are all state-owned.
The state issued coins uniformly, abolished private money, and prohibited nobles from minting private money.
All natural resources such as mining are all state-owned, and private miners must pay taxes and register for business licenses...
Wang Mang worked hard to change this decadent country according to his own ideas. He did not do it for fame or profit, but only to create the 'new dynasty' he had dreamed of. As for the throne, rights, etc., they were just tools for him to realize his ideals. It's just a secondary attribute.
Taking a closer look at the emergence of new ideas in world history, they are all related to the development of social production and development at that time. Of course, there are also advanced ideas, but there has never been an idea that was nearly two thousand years ahead of its time like Wang Mang's.
Wang Mang's restructuring policy was a complete replica of China's planned economy in the 1970s, and was seriously out of touch with the social productivity and development level at that time.
He wanted to solve the social problem of land, but he offended the interests of some wealthy families who owned large amounts of land.
Banning land sales was even harder to do because these were inherent ills of society at that time.
In addition, there is still a lack of strong enforcement agencies, making it difficult to verify and implement.
In the end, Wang Mang's restructuring ended in failure, and Wang Mang also played himself to death.
Of course, Wang Mang did not think that he had failed. Even if he failed, it was not a matter of policy, but that he met the lucky son of this era and his old enemy, Liu Xiu.
Wang Mang's first impression of Liu Xiu was only three words: good luck.
But gradually Wang Mang also realized that something was wrong. This guy's luck was not only good, it was so good that he couldn't be killed no matter how hard he tried. Moreover, every time he encountered misfortune, he always became lucky. He was a perfect example of the protagonist!
Wang Mang felt that his position as the protagonist had been challenged, and he was extremely afraid of Liu Xiu, so he mobilized more than 400,000 troops to suppress the rebellion, hoping to nip the threat of Liu Xiu in the bud.
But who knew that Liu Xiu was just like cheating? No, this guy was cheating, and it was even bigger than Wang Mang, a time traveler, and he could even summon meteorites.
In the Battle of Kunyang, Wang Mang's army of more than 400,000 was muddleheaded and defeated by Liu Xiu's army of less than 20,000 due to meteorites falling from the sky.
In the fourth year of Emperor Xinmang's reign, the Gengshi Army invaded Chang'an, and Wang Mang died in the rebellion.
