Judging from the actual situation, it is not feasible to expand the number of official positions to curb the vicious involution and win over people's hearts.
The phenomenon of redundant officials in the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties has proved the bankruptcy of this system.
Blindly expanding the scale of admissions will only lead to a serious phenomenon of redundant officials. Coupled with the high welfare of officials, it will only drag down the finances. The Ming Dynasty cannot continue to suffer the losses suffered by the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties.
So Su Yonglin thought of a way to go outside.
After business and technology develop, government departments will inevitably need to respond, and professional departments will be needed to take charge of these new social components. At that time, it will naturally be necessary to increase the number of officials.
Not only that, when these industries develop, there will be more demand for jobs in society, which in itself will distract some people's attention and prevent people from relying solely on the imperial examination as the only way to rise.
This is the development of domestic demand brought about by social development, which can curb vicious involution. .
At the same time, Su Yonglin also plans to increase foreign demand by opening up new territories, setting up not only local positions, but also overseas positions, in order to transfer some of the pressure on excess internal talents.
Needless to say, opening up territory and expanding territory is one of the future national policies of the Ming Dynasty.
The newly acquired territory also needs officials and government, and will also create demand for social production jobs. Once the local jobs are saturated, they will be transferred overseas. This is also an effective path.
Su Yonglin knew that the later British Empire was a master of this method. It had a small homeland but a large overseas territory. It successfully diverted many conflicts for many years. It was not until competitors emerged that they had to step back and become a complete troublemaker.
If we want to avoid the involution of vicious competition, we must open up the pattern and go outside.
The main reason for the vicious involution in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was that you couldn't get out. After your own thoughts became rigid, you couldn't get out, and if you couldn't get out, you had no way to survive. As the population increased, you could only get involuntarily.
And if you go out, a whole new world will open up.
Although Su Yonglin currently only controls northern China, his eyes are scanning the surroundings for all the places suitable for opening up borders.
The first one to bear the brunt was of course the Southern Song Dynasty.
It was also a coincidence that when Su Yonglin was ambitious and began to reserve manpower and material resources to clean up the Southern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty also learned that Xixia was completely cheating and the Ming Dynasty established the Hexi Province in the hometown of Xixia.
At that time, several generations of emperors in the Northern Song Dynasty were confused. Xixia could not hold on for three or four years in the hands of the Ming Dynasty. One rebellion almost destroyed the country, and another rebellion completely destroyed it.
Xixia has ceased to exist as an independent country. From now on, there will only be Hexi Province, without Xixia. The potential northwest foreign aid of the Southern Song Dynasty has completely disappeared.
The ministers who were still worried about their failure to reach cooperation with Xixia and jointly suppress the Ming Dynasty kept silent. While embarrassed, they also felt a great sense of crisis.
There is no other reason than that the Ming Dynasty's act of annexing Xixia was too horrific.
After all, it was a war-fighting country with the potential to mobilize hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Faced with the complete annexation of the Ming Dynasty, it did not seriously mobilize the national army to engage in even a life-and-death struggle with the Ming Dynasty.
There was not even a national war, but only two military operations of a rebellious nature were launched.
Faced with the successive fierce attacks by the Song army during the Song Taizong and Song Renzong eras, the Xixia Dynasty, led by Li Jiqian, Li Yuanhao and others, repeatedly won. It once formed a tripartite confrontation with the Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom, and its reputation was great.
How strong was Xixia back then?
Although they continued to weaken after that, until the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, they were completely unable to connect with it. Even the Northern Song Dynasty, which was more than ten times larger than it, could not destroy it and regain its former homeland in Hexi.
The Liao and Jin kingdoms also had nothing to do with this piece of brown candy.
That is more than two hundred years of entanglement.
Xixia, which was founded on a mere land west of Hexi, has been so tenacious.
It had only been five years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and less than five years after it had dealt with Xixia, Xixia was annexed, and it was annexed in the form of a local war.
According to the reports from the Guanzhong informants, there was no sign of large-scale dispatch of the Guanzhong garrison in this rebellion. It seemed that the rebellion was settled by relying solely on the original garrison in Hexi.
After the annexation of Xixia and the establishment of the Hexi Province, there was no rebellion in the hometown of Xixia. The situation was calm, and its people seemed to happily accept the fact of the country's demise.
Then it happened.
As of the date when the intelligence was issued, the Southern Song Dynasty court intelligence officers who were in Guanzhong and disguised as merchants had not heard any news of unrest in the hometown of Xixia.
The merchants who transported cattle and sheep from Xixia to trade in the Guanzhong market had no excuses.
An intelligence officer had business dealings with a Dangxiang businessman in the past. This time he came to Guanzhong to buy sheep and met him. After a while of discussion, he was surprised to learn that the Dangxiang people who now live in Hexi have no opinion at all about the demise of Xixia.
"Sad and angry? Why?"
The Tangxiang businessman laughed and spoke proficient Guanzhong Chinese.
"Before the people of the Ming Dynasty came, those bastard officials wanted to drain all my wealth. Every year, in order to maintain a stable business, I had to give about 60% of the money I earned to the officials and the military officers.
Now that the people of the Ming Dynasty are here, as long as I pay taxes on time, they don't ask me for an extra penny. The road is easier to walk than before, and the horse bandits can't be seen anymore. None of the officers and soldiers guarding the pass have blackmailed me or detained me. My goods were not allowed to pass the customs, and my cattle and sheep were not taken away from me. Why should I be sad and angry? "
The intelligence personnel of the Southern Song Dynasty were very surprised when they heard this.
"You are not Han. Wouldn't those Han officials in the Ming Dynasty make things difficult for you?"
After hearing this, the businessman Dangxiang shook his head with some emotion.
"It's really not true. We don't talk about this at all, and the government doesn't publicize it. We just say that everyone is a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, regardless of Han people, Dangxiang people, Khitan people, etc. Anyway, as far as I can see, the Ming government government treats us We are indeed treated equally without any differences, and we are encouraged to marry each other and live together.”
"Is this...really?"
"Of course it's true. My eldest brother's son married a Han woman a few years ago. I also have a friend whose daughter also married the son of a Han merchant family at the beginning of this year. On the day of the wedding of the two families, the local government sent people to Celebrated and sent congratulatory gifts.”
"………………"
The intelligence personnel of the Southern Song Dynasty did not know how to evaluate this, so they could only write this matter down in the intelligence and send it back to the Southern Song Dynasty together.
The Privy Council was now leading the collection and analysis of foreign intelligence in the Southern Song Dynasty. The Privy Council would collect the intelligence collected by the spies sent abroad, analyze it together, and then hand over some meaningful essence to the senior officials of the Privy Council.
So this matter was placed on Chen Kangbo's desk as important information about Xixia, and Chen Kangbo learned about it.
Chen Kangbo felt deeply worried after reading the recent intelligence about Xixia.
"The Xia people are mostly obsessed with the good governance of the Ming Dynasty and do not want to restore the country. It is quite difficult to mobilize the Xia people to launch a rebellion to contain the Ming Dynasty. It seems that there is no chance of restoring Guanzhong in the short term."
After seeing this information, Yu Yunwen, Yang Wanli and others also felt helpless.
At the end of September last year, before the Xixia rebellion broke out, Wu Lin, who was guarding the border of Sichuan, received a notice from the Xixia dignitaries.
They hoped that the Southern Song Dynasty could form an alliance with them, attack from the north and the south, and jointly break the Ming Dynasty's rule in Guanzhong and the northwest, restore the border situation between Xixia and the Southern Song Dynasty, and the two countries could fight against the Ming Dynasty together.
At that time, Wu Lin was very excited and happy. She also felt that there was another opportunity in front of her and she could not give up no matter what. So she immediately reported to Lin'an and traveled 600 miles day and night to deliver the news to Lin'an.
He wanted Lin'an to make a quick decision on whether he should take the opportunity to send troops to respond to the Xixia rebellion. The opportunity was not to be missed, and it would never come back.
Although the Privy Council, which has not yet completed its reorganization, has many unfinished matters, it responded very quickly, although it took a little more time to make a decision.
Some people think that we should respond to this rebellion and try to capture Guanzhong. This is the last opportunity and cannot be missed. Otherwise, once the Xixia is over, it will be difficult for the Southern Song Dynasty to have another chance to go north.
However, some people think that they cannot respond to this rebellion because the timing is wrong, Guanzhong is no longer so easy to capture, and the Xixia dignitaries are just dragging people into the water and cannot support them.
Yu Yunwen, who had always adhered to an offensive concept, unexpectedly chose a conservative attitude this time. He suggested to Chen Kangbo that he should not act rashly, let alone send troops at will.
