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Noticing the awkward expressions between Li Chuanwen and Niu Fude, Zhao Junchen felt something bad in his heart and asked again: "What is going on?"
After Li Chuanwen and Niu Fude looked at each other again, Niu Fude finally carefully explained: "This civil uprising... is actually related to your agricultural reform, Zhao Gechen..."
Zhao Junchen took a slow breath, vaguely guessing something.
Li Chuanwen continued: "This person from Xingzhou Tongzhi... you should be familiar with it, 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 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 sought death and offended Zhou Shangjing. , and soon his reputation was ruined. Liu Zimin and Liu Rui's brothers and sisters were also implicated, and their lives were extremely miserable. Liu Zimin was eager to find a supporter for himself.
I thought that the Liu family still had some influence and connections in Qingliu, so I wanted to use Liu Zimin to improve our reputation, so I took this person under my sect and let him take advantage of the opportunity of spring to move around and find ideas. Recruit some candidates for the examination for this pavilion.
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 for him to be 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 For the sake of pretending to be powerful, he did not care about his sister's innocent reputation, and hinted everywhere that there was an unclear relationship between me and Liu Rui. I have tolerated him for a long time.
What's more, this pavilion now has the great achievements of the victory in Shaanxi and Gansu, the recovery of the Hetao, and has married another leader of Qingliu, the granddaughter of Cui Mian, the former pavilion, as the royal wife. 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 will help improve your reputation, so you don't have to worry about anything, just say it directly! "
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 did not like Liu Zimin, Li Chuanwen had no scruples anymore, shook his head and sighed: "Since Zhao Junchen started to implement agricultural reforms, the government and the opposition have been unable to understand your painstaking efforts, and have been obstructing them in every possible way. , The progress is not smooth...
However, Liu Zimin is the complete opposite. He is your disciple and wants to please you. Naturally, he strongly supports and is particularly active in agricultural reform. 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 cold-resistant crops such as corn and 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 used drastic measures in order to further implement this policy. He forcibly ordered all farmers in Xingzhou, regardless of whether their fields were poor or fertile, to It is necessary to plant corn, sweet potatoes, etc. Even if a lot of land has been planted with wheat, sorghum, etc., the seedlings 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, so they quickly forced the local people to rebel, leading to a civil unrest! Until the students and Mr. Li left Xingzhou, the civil unrest still showed no sign of calming down. On the contrary, it was 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, and they will inevitably hold him back and cause trouble. However, he sees that With a "pig teammate" like Liu Zimin, Zhao Junchen still couldn't help but break the defense.
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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 the problem is, it can be resolved calmly; if agriculture and farmers cannot be stabilized, no matter how small the problem is, it can become the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Historians of later generations often lament the destruction of the buds of capitalism in the late Ming Dynasty. Zhao Junchen once strongly agreed with this view. After coming to this era, he also wanted to strengthen the capitalist class and develop capitalism. Then use the power of capitalism to transform this era - just like what most online articles write.
But now, Zhao Junchen completely scorns this view and idea.
The more Zhao Junchen understands this era, the more he understands one thing - only a sea-power civilization can give birth to capitalism, and the Ming Dynasty was a purely land-power civilization, so it was absolutely impossible to give birth to capital. Doctrine!
Why do you say this? Also according to the textbook, primitive accumulation is necessary in the early stage of capitalism, and this primitive accumulation is mainly a historical process that uses violent means to separate direct producers from the means of production, causing monetary wealth to quickly concentrate in the hands of a few people. .
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 tenant farmers in the agricultural era. They were bound to rise up and resist.
Under such circumstances, the sea power civilization can choose to establish colonies overseas and exploit the colonial people. Not only can it share the pressure of the exploitation of its own people, but once the colonial people rise up to resist, they can also quickly transfer the resources they exploited in the colony. The large amount of wealth has prevented the primitive accumulation in the early stage 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 expand 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. When the people of this country cannot bear the exploitation and rise up to resist, because everyone will Living on the same land, the exploiters have no escape and will soon be impacted, 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 capitalism was 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 big After large-scale tax evasion, all the tax pressure was passed on to the poor mud-legged people in the northwest. After the mud-legged people were overwhelmed and couldn't bear it, they finally decided to overturn the table. With Li Zicheng shouting the slogan "equal land and free grain", the Ming Dynasty The 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 was not in a hurry to strengthen capitalism. Instead, he has been secretly suppressing the growth of budding capitalism. His various methods-whether it was commercial tax reform, Sichuan salt development, or 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 Our living conditions must also be initially improved, and then we can slowly improve, 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. The next best thing is to wait.
In order to implement agricultural reforms, Zhao Junchen was even willing to sacrifice part of his own interests, even if he became 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. Although some relevant policies have been recognized by the imperial court, there are still many obstacles during 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 one 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.
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