Chapter 9 He Xi’s intentions
He Xi's intentions are very complicated.
On the one hand, I want everyone to talk. On the other hand, he wants everyone to speak according to his thoughts.
But the most difficult thing to control in the world is the human heart.
Therefore, there is such a contradictory behavior.
It can be seen that this conference will be a very exciting conference and a fierce battle.
For this conference, He Xi actually did not have many restrictions on the quota.
There are not too many people. Probably around a few hundred people.
The more people there are, the more difficult it is to control the situation. Moreover, there is no place for meetings with thousands of people.
Among these hundreds of people, more than a hundred were all high-ranking officials. Such as vassal kings, nobles, etc. The largest number of them are actually newly-confessed nobles. After a great war, probably more than a hundred people have been granted the title of count or above.
There are some big guys like Ye Chen here, as well as some officers who have reached the age of earl with their achievements and their future prospects are probably like this. In such a meeting, he can only be regarded as an idler.
And almost all of this group of people are supporters of He Xi, not supporters of He Xi, but also supporters of Emperor Longwu. This is also a better way to control the situation.
He Xi even made preparations. The first item at the beginning of the conference was to reward the heroes to enrich the list of the conference.
There are naturally some powerful people who are promoted from the ground, and He Xi also knows that these people are likely to be scholar-bureaucrats. There are even some chieftains from Yunnan and Guizhou. It is difficult for He Xi to control these people.
But the problem is that the existence of these people is also very realistic.
These people will not exist just because He Xi suppresses them and prevents them from making their voices heard at the conference.
If it weren't for Ding Xian's ruthless tactics. The scholar-bureaucrat group in the south will not be so dying. Can't even get a few spots. But He Xi also had to admit one thing, that is, even so, today and tomorrow, the influence of the corporal officials in the local area still has a lot of residual influence.
Most of these will oppose the new policies of the imperial court.
But He Xi dared to let him in, and he had made sufficient preparations.
That is, the old court team from Beijing.
The new dynasty is a group of nobles. Treasury bond holders are also in the same group.
This was specially approved by He Xi. If you hold a certain amount of Beijing government bonds, you can attend this conference. Many people in the court objected to this matter, but He Xi refuted it in the name of not being ungrateful.
After all, if Beijing didn’t have that huge national debt, it would be huge. It is difficult to get through the most difficult days. And even now, the national debt of the Ming Dynasty exceeds 2 billion, which is also an important issue at this meeting.
It would be inappropriate to say anything without inviting these people.
Moreover, this is also He Xi's move to improve his status as a businessman.
In fact, He Xi can foresee that in the future, there will be a considerable division among the businessmen in Beijing. Especially the white gloves supported by nobles and nobles.
Without him, the War between the North and the South was over. Many former kings and queens in the old days could only fly into the homes of ordinary people.
In this case, they still wanted to control the previous merchants, but they couldn't.
First of all, He Xi had already enacted the law and abolished slavery. Although it is said that most of the people who run the merchants for these nobles are former slaves of these nobles, and even today, they call themselves the slaves of their masters.
But legally, they are already human beings. It's the same people as these.
Moreover, He Xi has legally determined the right to operate the company. In other words, even if the nobles behind the scenes are the major shareholders, there is still a difference between them and the management rights.
At first, many people only saw it. The corporate legal person system allows companies to bear legal responsibilities, but it seems that they cannot be traced back to the nobles behind the scenes. This made the nobles very satisfied, but now they have discovered that yes, there is a layer between the company and the controlling family behind it. But the control power is already quite weak.
Before that, these nobles controlled the people below. The people below are slaves, kill
No one needs a reason. But things are different now.
The bond between the two parties is already very small.
Not to mention, during the years-long war between the North and the South, it was difficult to keep information between the two sides. Only remote control.
There is a problem.
There is no denying that there are some loyal servants. They are loyal to the family behind them and will not hesitate to sacrifice their lives and everything. But isn’t anyone corrupt? Looking at the unimaginable wealth in his hands and the already weak constraints between the two parties. In addition, the political status of his old employer has declined, and he cannot provide himself with shelter, and even implicated himself. I have been operating in Beijing for many years and have already established a quite large network of relationships.
This contrast between strength and weakness transforms. Wouldn't it make people think of something new, such as starting their own business, such as getting this money in their hands? ..
etc.
Not everyone is morally noble.
Now, this time Dingguo is a participant in the meeting, and He Xi is not prepared to name him a councillor. But I feel like I have to let nature take its course. When there is a need, someone will naturally ask for it. But no matter what, being able to appear on this occasion as a businessman is a leap forward for their status. Even some of the founding heroes of Hongwu did not receive this treatment.
On the one hand, there are many heroes in the founding of Hongwu. But some of their parents are gone. The younger generation is incompetent. He did not participate in the war between the North and the South at all, and has become a wealthy and idle man. It's just that it's even more marginalized now.
On the other hand, they bought strength in the North-South War and escaped from liquidation.
But it was only an escape from reckoning.
Some political treatment will also be reduced.
In this regard, if we use traditional moral concepts, He Xi is doing something bad and tempting these servants to betray their master's family. But in He Xi's view, he was doing a very important thing, which was to try to destroy bureaucratic capital.
In He Xi's view, bureaucratic capital is the most difficult to accept. Because the nature of bureaucracy is agricultural, pursuing stability and fixity. In his view, the world will never change in the end. Bureaucratic capital also has this characteristic. They are simply trying to find ways to draw blood from business practices. Won't do anything meaningful. Instead, he uses his power to maintain excess profits. Typically, one is unwilling to develop productivity. Nor are they willing to let others develop their productivity.
This has always been He Xi's heartache.
However, now I have more to think about.
This issue must be viewed dialectically.
Just like if you are a business in the United States, after it becomes big, you must go public. In China, no, in Ming Dynasty, the power structure of Ming Dynasty is like this. Money is important, but the most important thing is always power.
Therefore, when money develops to a certain extent, politics must be involved, otherwise it will either return to its original form or stop here.
This is a very real problem that cannot be completely solved by any means.
But what he wants is the cooperation between capital and power, rather than power supporting capital. The former is a game between two parties. The so-called political economy is the essence of society, the constant interaction and reaction between the economic base and the superstructure.
The latter is bureaucratic capital.
Therefore, what He Xi has to do is to show the world one thing, that is, capital can counterattack power.
With this precedent, many people will refer to it when doing things. Of course, it may lead to many other situations. For example, many families are too concerned about business operations and simply send their own family branches or direct descendants to run the industry. For example, extraordinary means are used to control the people who are in charge of business, etc.
However, He Xi believed that in this case, more people would fight back.
It can even be predicted, perhaps in the near future. The struggle between bureaucracy and capital instead became the main theme of the political struggle in the Ming Dynasty.
He Xi didn't know if it was okay or not.
After all, capital and bureaucracy are not good things. But to change the term, it is the so-called public power and personal power. But the first thing He Xi needs to do now is not to care about the future.
Come, focus on the present instead.
The first thing he had to determine was that the feudal ideological system and economic foundation with Confucian scholar-bureaucrats as the core had completely collapsed, and restoration was impossible.
