Emperor Liu used to be self-effacing and tried hard to appear peaceful, but he was actually a very proud man. He had a vision beyond the times and wisdom that could penetrate people's hearts. He changed the direction of the entire world in his life. , established a huge empire with unprecedented centralized power.
Emperor Liu had always been restrained and heavy-handed, but he showed arrogance and arrogance from time to time. At least as an autocratic emperor, Emperor Liu's achievements were unprecedented, and it would be difficult for anyone to do so again in the future.
But as he grew older and reached his twilight years, Emperor Liu's mentality continued to change. Reform and innovation, centralization of power, unification of the world, southern and northern expeditions, these things that Emperor Liu has been proud of for decades, now seem to him to be insignificant. After all, there are still people who have achieved these things for thousands of years. So many emperors.
After more than twenty years of peace, Emperor Liu discovered that the only thing he could really be proud of was overseas colonization. It was not about showing off one's prestige outside the region, but in Emperor Liu's view, it was an attempt to break China's historical stereotypes and a way to vent internal contradictions.
Although the current Han Dynasty and the empire cannot get rid of some feudal and backward frameworks, the living space of the people has been greatly expanded, and they have a certain degree of personal freedom.
For ordinary people, if they cannot bear the heavy burden and oppression at home, there are completely other ways out, and there are many choices, such as moving to the border or going to sea. As long as you are brave enough and dare to take risks, there are countless land resources around the Han Dynasty that the Han people can use, especially the vast Nanyang region. Although it is a large area of wilderness and the environment is harsh, most of them are high-quality resources. It is underdeveloped, but with the concentration and technology of the Han people in agriculture, as long as people leave, there will be no worries about no results.
As for the various influences and restrictions that local forces have on ordinary people, it is certainly inevitable, but it is also unrealistic to achieve complete control under the policy environment of the Han Dynasty.
The imperial court's attitude towards immigration to the border areas and overseas colonization has always been supportive and insistent, and immigration has long been regarded as one of the important indicators for the promotion assessment of officials in various places, and has been written into the ancestral system.
That's right, Emperor Liu still couldn't resist the urge to set the ancestral system. Although he was worried that the rules he set would become the "righteousness" of those who are stuck in their ways, Emperor Liu still did it. At least in his opinion, these rules he set All rules are for the long-term peace and stability of the empire.
Emperor Liu's original intention of establishing the ancestral system was of course to restrict future generations from messing around. From a perspective that transcends the times for thousands of years, he has the qualifications and confidence to do this.
Moreover, many of these matters were in order to maintain the enterprising and high-spirited spirit of the Han Dynasty officials and people. In order to achieve this enterprising spirit, a kind of stubborn and conservative measures had to be adopted. Sometimes, reality is so contradictory.
The issue of immigration and development is even more intense. Northeast China, Monan, Gaochang, Anxi, and Annan are all key development areas for the century-old plan.
Under this background, the government offices across the Han Dynasty naturally responded enthusiastically. When it came to promotion assessments and official titles, the bureaucrats of the Han Dynasty were naturally particularly dedicated.
Of course, it's not just to let it go, otherwise, in order to complete the task and achieve a glorious result, you can think of any method that is not ridiculous and bad, and you can do anything without a bottom line.
Therefore, Emperor Liu continued to impose restrictions and put tight restrictions on his bureaucrats. In view of the lessons learned from the Yulin Rebellion, government immigration has a basic principle, that is, it is voluntary and cannot be forced. If an official does not use any means to achieve his own goals, and uses his power to bully others, he can report it to the next higher level government. Once confirmed, severe punishment will be imposed. And if a "mass" incident like the Yulin Rebellion occurs due to immigration matters, we will also investigate to the end and the officials involved will not be lenient.
At the same time, the immigration destinations are also strictly regulated. Anton, Anxi, and Annan are the first batch, Gaochang, Monan and other peripheral areas are the second batch, and the rest are the last batch.
All immigrants organized by the government must be recorded in detail to ensure the management and control of immigrants. The number of immigrants and their performance assessment will be counted by each region and submitted to the court for comparison and assessment by the two parties. The imperial court will also send out envoys from time to time to supervise and inspect this process.
As for overseas immigration, so far, it is still a matter of people’s free will.
The main thing is to launch actions, and it has not yet reached the point where the government has come forward to organize. When it comes to immigration, real borders are still the most important consideration in current policy.
However, it is conceivable that when the new tax reform is completely completed, the Han Dynasty will usher in a terrifying population wave, which cannot be stopped. Perhaps, at that time, alleviating population pressure will become the main purpose of immigration.
The trend of state-owned enterprises is raging, so beggar-thy-neighbors are the solution that Emperor Liu could think of to provide more choices for the people of the Han Dynasty and more possibilities for the Han Empire. Fortunately, the world is large enough for ordinary people to travel.
Therefore, although it has been more than 20 years, the imperial court has not organized large-scale and forced migration of people. However, under the guidance of this relatively moderate policy, the Han Dynasty has made considerable achievements in immigration over the past few years. It has accumulated a small amount and made a lot of achievements. The size of the immigrant population achieved is larger than that of the rough immigration policy of the past. The number of forced evictions has increased several times.
Of course, among them, I have to praise the performance of those bureaucrats who tried every means to actively promote for a good political performance and promotion prospects.
We dare not use simple and crude policies indiscriminately, but there are other methods, and many local governments choose to induce them with benefits. Many areas with poor land and large populations have chosen to use part of the scarce tax revenue to subsidize people who are willing to move to the border areas.
Therefore, for many people who are willing to work in the border areas, they will already have their first income from the time they submit their application. When arriving at the destination, land, seeds, farming tools and other means of production are usually fully prepared. In some places, even the houses to live in are taken into consideration. With certain subsidies, the livelihood rations during the reclamation period will also be no less. .
[In view of the general environment,
In order to immigrate, the imperial court also allocated a special sum of money for this purpose. By the 24th year of Kaibao, the amount of this sum had reached three million yuan. This was not a small sum.
I have to mention that in order to support the development of Anton, the imperial court allocated one million guan every year. As the development of Anton gradually got on track, this money was stopped due to some obscure reasons. But it is not difficult to see from it that Emperor Liu was interested in the development of the Andong region, the stability of the northeastern border defense, and his preference for his eldest son Liu Xu.
On the other hand, the Xuanwei Department also went all out to publicize and select the advantages of each immigration area for publicity. This has indeed achieved considerable results.
In recent years, there have been many such phenomena in the Han Dynasty. The government sent officials to the countryside to promote the court's immigration policy and local government immigration preferential policies one by one.
It won't work once, or even in a year, but over time, there will always be people who are tempted. After all, even Anton was described in the brochure produced by the Xuanwei Department as a fertile land with thousands of miles of fertile land, a treasure trove of flora, fauna and mineral resources. It has no shortcomings except that it is a bit cold...
With the implementation of the large-scale tax reform of the imperial court, once completed, the social environment changes, coupled with policy drivers, a new wave of immigrants will predictably break out.
In the past, although many officials did a better job in promotion assessment and promoted immigration, there was no comprehensive recognition. Considering other interests, bureaucrats are actually unwilling to do something that wastes effort and money like immigration.
Under the two-tax system, the government's financial input mainly depends on people. The larger the population, the more fiscal and tax revenue can be collected, and the less it will be distributed to individuals. The burden on the people under governance will be relatively lightened. As long as they know how to exercise restraint, the public resentment caused will be reduced. It will also be smaller.
Bureaucrats in various places can basically regard the people under their control as chickens in cages that can continuously harvest and lay eggs. Unless necessary, they are easily unwilling to let the chickens out of the cage and give the chickens that lay eggs to others.
But now the situation is different. Population has long ceased to be a criterion for assessing political performance, and the tax calculation basis and tax rules have also changed. Land is rationed, and no matter how many people there are, it will not affect the collection of regular taxes.
As a result, maintaining a large population is obviously not cost-effective for government operations. After all, raising so many people costs food. If disaster occurs, relief and tax cuts are necessary, which is a loss no matter how you look at it.
The poorer the place, the more so. For officials, whether it is career or interests considerations, they are motivated to do something; for the people, there is a dynasty.
With the support of imperial policies, there are direct benefits. Apart from having to leave home and bear the risks of border security, there are no other disadvantages. This is a win-win result.
If we talk about risks, people have already embarked on a dangerous journey since birth...
Of course, once a wave of immigrants forms, it will not be so friendly to domestic landowners. After all, they control a large amount of land and require a lot of manpower for farming and management.
As for the labor shortage that may be caused by immigration, it will be replenished as the population explodes again. It is difficult for the Han Dynasty to have a headache due to the lack of population.
On the other hand, it can also limit the exploitation of domestic landlords. Once it goes too far, people can run away. If they immigrate openly and drive people away, what is the use of retaining the land...
