Emperor Su He learned about the situation in Europe and decided on the diplomatic strategies of the Great China Empire and the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
He asked Chu Sheng to go back and study the foreign policy of the Great China Empire.
Countries like France that have not yet had direct conflicts, and countries like Persia that have no major conflicts of interest.
The Great China Empire must establish diplomatic relations with these countries.
Other countries can close themselves off, close their eyes to the situation in the world, and cover their heads to develop alone.
Emperor Su He knew the dangers of seclusion. He also knew how difficult it was for the army to fight on two fronts and would not choose to make enemies everywhere.
He saw Chu Sheng leaving and opened the new telegram sent by the Royal Telegraph Bureau.
This was a telegram jointly sent by the governors of the five newly occupied governor's offices.
Emperor Su He looked at the signatures on the cover: Ma Heng, Governor of Eastern Japan, Chen Zhenhui, Governor of Cochin, Yang Baosen, Governor of Siam, Liu Zhiyong, Governor of Myanmar, and Wen Chenglin, Governor of East India.
These five governors sent telegrams at the same time. They must have communicated privately and thought that the matter was important, so they did so.
Emperor Su He looked at the contents of the telegram and knew that he liked data and charts.
This report is very detailed, listing changes in food production, tax revenue, and new population in the five governor's mansions in recent years.
It can be seen at a glance from the chart that starting from the second half of the year before last, various industries in the five major governor's offices began to lack people.
These places are mainly engaged in farming and mining, which are labor-intensive industries that require a large number of people.
Taking Siam as an example, previously it was necessary to cultivate unused fields so that a steady stream of immigrants could be allocated fields.
Suddenly, the local population lost a lot. Not only the immigrants who were waiting to be allocated their fields disappeared, but also a large number of farmers who had already obtained land in the local area. They chose to abandon their fields.
Considering how much Han farmers cherish their land, even they choose to abandon it, which is a major reason.
The reason for this situation is that after the establishment of a vassal state, a large population is needed to maintain the development of the country.
They can civilize some local indigenous people, but the core population is all immigrants from the Great China Empire.
A large number of people immigrated to overseas vassal countries.
In the overseas governor's mansion, no one cultivates the fields, cuts down the trees, and exploits the minerals.
The people of a place are the most important. If a large number of people are lost from an area, the area will definitely lose its vitality.
After Emperor Su He learned the information, he said with some surprise: "The Great China Empire, with hundreds of millions of people, will one day feel short of people. This is incredible."
Emperor Su He had read some information before and found that overseas governor's offices could not compete with vassal states.
These immigrants were determined to immigrate to the overseas governor's palace from the Central Plains.
He didn't care and continued to the vassal country which was very far away from the Great China Empire.
What's more, in order to compete for population, these vassal states provided very good conditions.
Emperor Su He knew about the recruitment policy of vassal countries.
At that time, it caused a great sensation in the country, and some officials of the imperial court clamored for some restrictions.
Emperor Su He personally issued an order not to block the actions of the vassal states.
There are two main types of people who go to vassal states.
The bastard of a big family or a dissatisfied scholar.
Either they want to expand their family power, or they want to seek an official position.
As long as they have some talents, they can rise up in the vassal country and change their own destiny.
This group is very small, and there is another huge group, that is, the people at the bottom who have nothing.
The land of the Dahua Empire still needs to be purchased by the people through bank loans.
The land in the Overseas Governor's Mansion is half-sold and half-given, and there are many additional requirements for ordinary people to obtain these lands.
The most critical issue is that within the Great China Empire, everyone is treated equally for taxation.
It was completely different in the vassal country. When people immigrated to the vassal country, they could get more land. The land was distributed free of charge and no extra money was needed.
Each vassal country has a tax-free policy, and the shortest country gives its people tax exemption for three years.
The most critical point is that when people go to the vassal country to farm, they go to the local owners and rely on the slaves of the Sweet Potato Country to farm the land. They do not need to go to the fields themselves to hoe.
This greatly increased the appeal to the common people, who had previously been extremely disgusted with the landlords and gentry.
But when they had the opportunity to become landowners and gentry and enslave other natives to help them farm the land, they would never give up the opportunity.
Emperor Su He learned that the Han population in Zhao State in North America alone was as high as over 1.3 million people.
They are open to immigrants from other races, and the foreign population is one to two times that of the Han people.
It is conceivable that if several vassal states were put together, what a huge number of immigrants they would accept.
The siphon effect produced by the vassal states, they sucked away a large number of people at the bottom of the empire from the overseas governor's mansion.
Governor Ma Heng of East Japan, Governor Chen Zhenhui of Cochin, Governor Yang Baosen of Siam, Governor Liu Zhiyong of Myanmar, and Governor Wen Chenglin of East India.
These five governors have taken many measures to ensure that the governor's palace does not collapse.
These measures are completely ineffective and the situation continues to worsen.
The five governors saw that with their own abilities, they could no longer reverse the decline of the governor's palace.
They were also afraid that there would be problems in the Governor's Mansion and that they would be dismissed like the former Eastern Japanese Governor Li Zhiheng.
The five governors chose to expose this matter and jointly submitted a petition asking the court to solve the problem.
After Emperor Su He finished reading, he threw the telegram aside.
This problem is very difficult and cannot be solved by just a few policies.
The Great China Empire cannot directly distribute land for free like the vassal states.
There is a wise saying passed down from our ancestors: Don’t worry about scarcity, but worry about inequality.
Many people bought land with unified loans when Suhe established his power.
For example, the people in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu regions.
At that time, most of this amount became military expenses, which ensured that the small group at that time would not have financial problems and prevent them from falling apart due to lack of money.
Through hard work over the past few years, many people have paid off their outstanding loans.
Don’t worry about scarcity but inequality, and exempt latecomers from the expense.
What to do with the people in front who contributed more?
If this matter is not handled well, it will aggravate the people's distrust of the court.
Agricultural taxes cannot be exempted. Agricultural taxes are now far inferior to commercial taxes.
However, agricultural taxes still accounted for one-fifth of the entire empire's tax revenue.
Suddenly without one-fifth of the tax revenue, the Great China Empire will have a financial crisis.
The major projects being promoted by the imperial court can only be postponed indefinitely.
It’s just that water conservancy projects in various places have provided sufficient water sources for previously poor fields, turning them into good fields, increasing crop yields by at least 40%.
Water conservancy projects are very simple. The reason why they have not been vigorously promoted by various dynasties and generations is because it would be a waste of money to fully implement them.
Without sufficient financial support, projects like this that require heavy investment and are slow to produce results will never happen again.
If we don’t worry about scarcity but about inequality, we should give free services to farmers and avoid tax exemption for businessmen? Are officials exempt from tax? Are nobles exempt from tax?
Their voice and strength are superior to those of farmers.
Once the tax exemption gap opens, these people will find ways to benefit their own people.
Emperor Su He could still suppress these nobles and civil servants while he was still alive.
When the throne is passed on to future generations and the authority of the emperor is no longer in power, this kind of thing is bound to happen.
Emperor Su He thought of other solutions, but he didn't think of a better solution.
It was an undesirable policy to prohibit immigrants from going to vassal states.
Strengthening the strength of vassal states and allowing them to firmly establish a foundation overseas is one of the most important strategies of the Great China Empire.
If the Han people do not fight for the unclaimed land overseas, they will be grabbed by others.
The vassal states will also be the raw material suppliers and industrial product dumping sites for the Great China Empire.
The Great China Empire has a steady supply of raw materials and a huge market, and will transform into an industrial country.
If Emperor Su He was asked to make a choice, he would also choose to support the vassal states.
Because the Overseas Governor's Mansion is close to the mainland of the Great China Empire.
With the construction of railways and roads, the connection between the mainland of the Great China Empire and the overseas governor's offices will become closer.
The people at the bottom were allocated land, and the imperial court abolished the poll tax.
The people can live and work in peace and contentment, and most people have solved their food and clothing problems.
In recent years, there has been a baby boom in the Great China Empire.
When these children grow up, a large number of them will inevitably be sent to overseas governor's offices.
This choice will only make the development of overseas governor's mansions slower.
The original positioning of these places is to provide raw materials and markets.
Decades without development will not have much impact.
Emperor Su He immediately asked Zhou Fangzhi to inform Prime Minister Wei Shiming to enter the palace to meet the emperor.
He wanted to know the cabinet's thoughts on this matter.
Prime Minister Wei Shiming hurriedly put down his cabinet work and came to the Qianqing Palace where Emperor Su He was.
He met Emperor Su He and was given a seat by Emperor Su He. He received the telegram from Eunuch Zhou Fangzhi.
Prime Minister Wei Shiming quickly read the telegram and learned about Emperor Su He's thoughts.
He thought for a moment and replied: "Your Majesty, the imperial court cannot provide policies similar to those of vassal countries, and it does not want to restrict immigration.
Now the people are lost to the vassal country. As the vassal country's strength grows, the local people can survive stably.
The people who were originally waiting and watching would inevitably choose to settle in the vassal country for the sake of their own future or that of their children.
Wei Chen believes that this is just the beginning of the immigration wave.
The cabinet will make plans to prevent a large number of employees in a certain industry from immigrating to overseas vassal countries, causing the industry to collapse. "
The Prime Minister first explained the cabinet's response.
During his free time, his brain was running at high speed, thinking of solutions to the problem.
He recalled events that stood out in his memory, preparing to think of solutions through these events.
Prime Minister Wei Shiming used the corner of his eyes to notice that Emperor Su He did not show an anxious look and was still waiting for him to continue speaking.
He just wanted to change the topic and say something innocuous to give himself more time.
Before he could say this, he suddenly had an idea and thought of a solution.
Prime Minister Wei Shiming was fortunate that his words were not spoken, and he immediately reorganized what he wanted to say.
“Your Majesty, the lack of population in Siam and other places is nothing more than a replacement of resources to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.
The first thing Wei Chen thought of was resource replacement.
Eastern Japan is an island country with a small area of arable land, but its population is large.
After so many years of rule, the empire has completely controlled these places and is not afraid of the local indigenous people causing trouble.
We can move the natives from the mountainous areas to the plains on a large scale, allowing the major governor-general offices to exchange advantages and complement each other's resources.
This approach requires some costs and is likely to arouse resistance from the locals.
The cabinet had not chosen to do this before, and Wei Chen believed that the time was now ripe.
Of course, this kind of operation can only cure the symptoms, not the root cause. The immediate needs must be solved first.
Another way is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.
His Majesty has just rejected the method of reducing expenditure, so only increasing revenue is left.
There is also a special group of people in the empire. If they can be immigrated to the overseas governor's mansion, some problems should be solved. "
As soon as Emperor Su He heard what Prime Minister Wei Shiming was saying, he immediately interrupted: "Wei Aiqing wants to fill the staff gap in the overseas governor's office.
That's not enough for tens of thousands of people.
It would take at least tens or millions to solve the problems we are facing now.
If there is such a large group of people in the country, how could I be clueless? "
Prime Minister Wei Shiming saw Emperor Su He's surprised look.
He nodded seriously and said: "Your Majesty is blinded. If I give you a little reminder, Your Majesty will definitely be able to guess their identities."
Emperor Su He waved his hand and said: "Wei Aiqing, please stop trying to get along with me and tell me the solution you thought of in detail."
Prime Minister Wei Shiming saw Emperor Su He's urging.
The first draft in his mind has been perfected, and the solution he has thought of has been formally stated.
“There are still one type of people in the empire, three groups.
They are all young and strong, numbering in the millions.
As long as the policy is smarter, it can effectively solve the problem of immigrants being unable to stay safely in the local area and go to various vassal countries.
The kind of people I'm talking about are the people who are subject to our control.
These three groups are prisoners of war who have not been released due to various reasons since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
There are no criminals who have been sentenced to death or exiled in prisons in various places.
People who were previously demoted as slaves for various reasons, but were assimilated by Chinese civilization during their work.
As long as the policies are determined, these three groups of people can fill the staff vacancies in the overseas governor's offices.
Restricting the movements of these people will not lead to opposition from the majority of people.”
Emperor Su He was very satisfied after hearing Prime Minister Wei Shiming's countermeasures.
These three groups are completely marginalized groups. Prime Minister Wei Shiming didn't mention them, and Emperor Su He really didn't think of them.
A small number of the prisoners of war who are still serving their sentences are people who were loyal to the Ming Dynasty. Their crimes were not punishable by death, so they have been detained.
Most of the prisoners of war were captured while fighting the troops under Su He.
They massacred the captured soldiers and innocent people under Su He's command.
The generals who were mainly responsible for these things have been executed, and the Ming army who performed these tasks are also jointly and severally responsible.
Only a small number of criminals before the Great China Empire were sentenced to exile, and the overall number of criminals was considerable.
Prime Minister Wei Shiming now wants all prisoners to be sentenced to exile as long as they can be sentenced to exile.
Both the court and the people purchased a large number of slaves. These slaves were lucky enough to survive. They had lived in the country for a long time and have now been basically Chineseized.
The degree of Chineseization of these people is deeper than that of the natives in the overseas governor's mansion.
Emperor Su He said with satisfaction: "Wei Aiqing, the cabinet will take the lead in solving this problem, convening ministers from various ministries to discuss a sound policy.
I will implement these policies as soon as possible after reviewing them. "
Prime Minister Wei Shiming received Emperor Su He's order.
He immediately returned to the cabinet and held a cabinet meeting. He discussed relevant policies with the ministers and strived to solve this problem perfectly.
(End of chapter)
