Chapter 33: On the Conquest of the South
But, the money thing. It cannot be viewed statically. Look dynamically.
Although it is said that the Ming Dynasty was heavily in debt. But in fact, He Xi carried out a series of reforms, including currency depreciation, additional issuance, new currency replacement, currency value adjustment, etc.
Not to mention, the rapid development of productivity.
After a monetary magic, many people feel nothing. It feels like the currency has depreciated, but not significantly. But in fact, the depreciation was huge, as can be seen from the ratio between gold and silver and paper money.
But in terms of purchasing power, because of the development of the industrial revolution. It hasn't dropped much.
The taxes collected by the Ming Dynasty will also increase to a certain extent due to currency reasons. If the tax limit of the Ming Dynasty before the war started, He Xi felt that it was within 100 million yuan, but that is not necessarily the case now.
This is certainly because He Xi has certain expectations for tax increases after a series of reforms. It’s even more because the money is worthless.
Although the national debt is more than 2 billion, plus the annual interest, it is not a small amount. But if it is hedged against depreciation, it can only be said to be a preservation of value. It’s not even about making money.
Under such circumstances, it is not too difficult to pay off all the national debt of more than 2 billion.
Not to mention, the Southern Expedition may not require the central government to spare a lot of money. To learn more about war bonds, King Yan was the first to try it. The Southern Expedition may not necessarily be useless.
Moreover, war can actually boost the economy. After all, the economic system developed during the war is somewhat biased towards war, and there are still a lot of war surplus materials.
Fighting a war may not be a bad idea.
War is also a kind of business.
In He Xi's view, such a war has both advantages and disadvantages. You can fight or you can not fight. But He Xi thought of a good idea. That's what it's all about.
That's right.
He Xi's decision to respect Dingguo was Hui's decision.
What is the process of democratic decision-making? He Xi is not too clear either.
Democratic centralism is one kind. But so is ballot democracy. There are also many things that are unclear about the new system that He Xi wants to establish. He Xi couldn't be sure.
But He Xi is very clear about one thing. This Dingguo is a council and must have certain powers. At least it was used to check and balance the civil service system and bureaucrats, and even the emperor.
We must also be careful about the decentralization of power.
Because too many things are caused by uneven distribution of power.
As for the matter of conquering the south, it doesn't matter what it is. He Xi just wanted to see if this method of making country decisions at a meeting would work? In addition, I also want to give the people below a little sweetness.
At least give them a sense of participation in decision-making on national affairs.
It can also be regarded as a way to win people's hearts.
After all, He Xi selected all the participants to be very capable. It can be said that they are all the kind of people who are not short of money. Some small favors and bribes are of no use at all.
But power is what they desire most.
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"Today's topic is the conquest of the South. Your Majesty has something to do with the First Assistant, so he won't come." The King of Shu said loudly, "Please start discussing this matter."
"Your Majesty, neither Your Majesty nor the Chief Assistant is here. What else are we discussing? Will it be useful to discuss it?"
The King of Shu said: "Of course it is useful. The chief minister has told me that the world is not a world for one person, but a world for all peoples. Major events in the world must be decided by public opinion and everyone must be convinced. Therefore, no matter what you do today, What decision has been made? Even His Majesty will not object to it."
"What?" King Shu's words aroused the exclamation of countless people in the entire hall.
They looked at each other, but no one spoke for a moment.
In other words, all the people who came to participate in the conference never thought that one day they would actually participate in the decision-making, and the decision to launch a war would be placed in their hands.
For a moment, they just felt like a dream. unbelievable.
There must be something wrong. Perhaps His Majesty and the Chief Assistant have other intentions. It’s just that I haven’t figured it out for a while. Most people have wondered why this matter developed like this? There is more thought than pondering whether to march south.
However, there is one person who is an exception, naturally Mu Chun.
Muchun didn't know why things developed like this at first, but he was prepared from the beginning to be beaten back. However, he had no time to think about it.
After all, it has become like this now. The most important thing is to ensure the support of more people so that this matter can be passed at this meeting.
This was what he proposed, and it would be fine if He Xi denied it. After all, where is He Xi's prestige? Don't let He Xi beat you back too much.
Not shameful at all. But now everything depends on public opinion.
If Muchun can't get things right, his own prestige will be damaged.
Therefore, Muchun was the first to come out and explain the benefits of conquering the south. I won’t go into details here.
However, someone immediately came out and strongly opposed Mu Chun's opinion. Needless to say, he was a Confucian official. It is easy to understand that they oppose all foreign conquests. Confucian routine.
He opposed almost all foreign wars.
At this moment, it would be strange not to stop it.
But in this matter, there were no supporters. For example, Song Sheng, who had just been granted the title of Marquis, strongly supported Mu Chun.
On the one hand, Song Sheng and Muchun had some friendship. On the other hand, there is the dilemma Song Sheng faces. That is the reform of the military system. The entire Ming Dynasty's Forbidden Army must be an all-firearms army.
This means that many of the old armies will be disbanded. Mei Yin and Song Sheng had more surrendered troops than anyone else. Although Nanjing has a lot of surrendered troops, it is easy to do the work.
Without him, when they surrendered, the situation was over and they had no merit to speak of. Naturally, there was no power or strength to speak of in the Beijing system.
However, Mei Yin, Song Sheng and other old armies were different.
They all worked hard and sold their blood for the Beijing imperial court to dominate the world.
In this case, the placement and dismissal cannot be simple and crude. But fighting abroad is a good way to settle things. There is a need to garrison garrison in remote places, and newly conquered places also provide a lot of extra wealth to the army.
Fight a war and put all these old troops in place. This is a good thing.
After all, Mei Yin is the Duke of the country. Come forward rashly. Worry about getting out of control. So it was just right for Song Sheng to come forward.
Immediately afterwards, some people came to oppose the conquest of Myanmar. This was purely based on resource allocation. The Ming Dynasty's financial resources are currently insufficient, and its national power is limited. If it invests more in other places, it will contribute less to the country.
If we spend more money on conquering the South, we will spend less money on other provinces.
Of course they don't want to.
Soon, Ge Tiangong came out to speak. He supported Zhengnan. The reason is very simple. There are not too many disciples of Ge Tiangong in the military weapons production department. Fighting is a good thing for him and many people behind him. .
They can be considered the most primitive military-industrial complex.
The King of Shu naturally did not have He Xi's prestige. He was just the person presiding over the meeting at the moment. There is no deterrent effect at all. It's already pretty good to be able to keep the whole meeting calm.
Anyway, there's a lot of noise here.
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It's in a pavilion in the harem.
In fact, the straight-line distance between here and the main hall does not count. However, the Nanjing Imperial Palace has many rocks and mountains, as well as various garden designs, giving it a completely different temperament.
Balls rolling in the spring, cool breeze in the shade of trees, and birds chirping, it seems like you are in the city, just like the first quiet time in the mountains, and you naturally feel a sense of leisure.
Zhu Xiongying said: "Uncle, I can understand that for the court, there are advantages to fighting. There are advantages to not fighting. But if you let them fight, I guess there will be no results.
"
He Xi said: "To achieve great things, don't rely on the public. There are many people with mixed opinions and many opinions. It is almost impossible to satisfy everyone. There are hundreds of people in the meeting. It is normal to have some disputes."
Zhu Xiongying said: "Then why did uncle do this today?"
He Xi said: "For some things, it is best to find something for some people to do. This situation in front of me actually gives me a headache. Your Majesty, do you think this Dingguo will be the future parliament in the future Ming Dynasty system? , is it a position? The highest authority?"
Zhu Xiongying was silent for a while and said, "Absolutely not."
He Xi said calmly: "Yes. Absolutely not. The problem is too big. We talk about ruling the world with so-and-so, but in fact, in the small circle of ruling the world, more than ten people are considered too many. If there are dozens of people, It is difficult to unify this opinion. It is impossible to get hundreds of people in Congress to have the same idea. Moreover, if it can be done, I am afraid it is not a good thing. Because of this, something like this happened. That means There is a major crisis in the world. If we don’t deal with it, the country will be destroyed.”
"Song Dynasty family law is most suitable to be used here."
Zhu Xiongying's eyes lit up and he said, "What do you mean, uncle, are you talking about different opinions? Deliberately dividing the different power factions in the meeting."
He Xi said: "You don't have to do it intentionally, they themselves can't pee in a pot. Just give them some important but not urgent matters and let them discuss them carefully. Just like today's matter, the conquering of the South, is it important? Of course it is important. Once Burma is captured and there is an outlet to the West Sea, as long as the railway from Hunan to the West Sea is repaired, the economy of the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty can be developed. But the question is, is this matter urgent? "
"It's not urgent at all. The same thing happened three to five years ago, or even ten or eight years ago, at night, and it won't actually be a big problem. Just let them discuss it slowly."
"This Dingguo is capable, and we must pay attention to it. If we don't pay attention to it, it is impossible to understand the situation below. But we cannot hand over too much power, otherwise something will happen."
