After Luo Zhixue's northern tour in the second half of the 29th year of Chengshun ended successfully, Luo Zhixue also returned to Jinling City and resumed his normal life and work rhythm.
But although the Northern Inspection is over, the subsequent impact of the Northern Inspection has just begun!
In particular, the issue of protecting the interests of workers has received a lot of attention. When he was still on the northern tour, Luo Zhixue gave a public speech and announced it to the world in the form of an imperial edict.
The imperial edict states that the interests of workers must be effectively protected.
To this end, several senior officials in the Da Chu Empire successively submitted memorials, requesting the establishment of minimum wages and maximum working hours.
Regarding these memorials, Luo Zhixue always chose to stay in them and not publish them.
But basically anyone with some political savvy will know that since the emperor has mentioned the issue of improving the welfare benefits of the workers before, there will be no real opposition.
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That’s it!
A point that many ordinary people in the empire pay little attention to is that although the Chu Empire has continued to fight foreign wars in recent years, in fact, it has not sent many troops abroad. The Chu Empire alone has an army of more than 1.5 million people. scale.
Of the more than 1.5 million people in the army, only a few thousand were sent to North America, only 20,000 to 30,000 were sent to Southeast Asia, and there were more in Burma, India, and Africa, but only 50,000 to 60,000.
The total number of troops stationed in overseas areas across the ocean can support only 100,000 people.
There are more border areas in the northwest, but Central Asia and Western Siberia together only have more than 100,000 people.
So where are the remaining nearly 1.3 million troops deployed?
The heart of the empire!
The southwest region, including Qingkang, Yunnan-Guizhou, and Sichuan regions, has more than 200,000 troops.
The Yangtze River Basin east of the Three Gorges is also a heavily fortified area by the military. More than 60,000 Guards troops and more than 300,000 Army troops are deployed along both sides of the Yangtze River.
Among them, Xiangyang, Hantian Wuchang, Changsha, Jiujiang, Anqing, Yingtianfu, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Jiangyin, and Wusong are all areas where the Chu army is heavily stationed. Each place will have at least one B-class standing division or even A-class combat readiness division.
There are also many troops in Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong and Guangxi in the south of the empire.
Not to mention the north, Chang'an in Shaanxi, Zhengzhou in Henan, Xuzhou in Jiangbei, Tianjin in Hebei, and Shenyang in the northeast are all areas heavily fortified by the Chu army.
Not only in strategic locations and large city defense areas, the Chu Empire actually stationed a certain number of regular troops in every county, ranging from dozens to hundreds of troops. Although the local troops in these places were all C-class garrison troops. , but still a regular army.
Why did the Chu Empire deploy such a large number of troops in its hinterland?
Is it to defend against foreign enemies?
Stop being funny.
These days, how can any foreign enemy be able to attack the mainland hinterland of the Chu Empire...
The main function of these large numbers of regular troops is actually to suppress internal pressure and deter all potential rebel forces.
The purpose of deploying an army of more than one million is to tell those potential careerists, and even ordinary people who are dissatisfied with society: Don't cause trouble, or your family's ashes will be destroyed.
This is "not daring to rebel."
However, military repression and deterrence are only the last line of insurance, and they even treat the symptoms rather than the root cause. If you want to truly maintain your rule for a long time, you still need to make people unwilling to rebel.
If you can live a good life, except for the crazy and ambitious, ordinary people will be willing to play rebellion because they don't want to live long.
The vast majority of ordinary people still hope to live a stable life. If their lives can be slightly better, then it will be better.
A series of domestic and foreign policies of the Chu Empire were actually driven by the goal of making people unwilling to rebel.
Establishing a unified agricultural tax, reducing the burden on farmers, supporting agricultural development, etc., it is not that the senior officials of the Chu Empire really care about the life and death of these mud-legged people... They are the new powerful people who are above them, how can they really care about the life and death of these mud-legged people? .
The two are not the same type of people!
The imperial elites improve the living standards of the peasants with a simple goal: to enable the peasants to survive and even have good food, drink, housing and clothing, so that there will be no large-scale refugees or even rebel armies.
How did the Ming Dynasty fall? On the surface, the Chu army overthrew it, but in fact, before the rise of the Chu army, the Ming Dynasty was already riddled with holes. The various rebel armies in the northwest region were about to dig out the roots of the Ming Dynasty... even without Chu. Army, according to the situation that year, the Shaanxi Rebel Army was finally able to force Chongzhen to death on Meishan Mountain.
These lessons are clearly seen by the senior officials of the Dachu Empire. Therefore, the senior officials of the Dachu Empire are extremely wary of refugees and potential rebels. This is why once a disaster hits a certain place, the empire will be eager to carry out various activities. Provide relief and disaster relief, and even move victims to other places en masse for immigration.
In order to avoid large-scale displacement,
to avoid the emergence of rebel forces.
In the past twenty years or so, the Da Chu Empire has spared no effort to develop agriculture and improve the living conditions of farmers. It has achieved certain results. At least there has been no large-scale famine in the Da Chu Empire, let alone large-scale famine. Refugees.
Therefore, when it comes to peasant issues, the Chu Empire was relatively successful.
Of course, it is not without cost. For example, in the pre-Ming Dynasty, all kinds of powerful landlords and gentry were suppressed to almost extinction. Especially in the early years, the local officials in the Chu Empire would find excuses to play tricks on the landlords every day. To confiscate homes and exterminate families...the most commonly used excuse is tax evasion.
The few remaining landowners were also forced to give up a large amount of land during this process and transferred it to industry and commerce, and then evolved into part of the new industrial and commercial class of the Great Chu Empire.
So strictly speaking, under the rule of the Chu Empire, there is no longer a class of landlords who own a large amount of land. At most, there are only some small landowners and rich peasants.
As for these disappeared landlords, their interests have not disappeared, but have been transferred to the farmers.
After many policies, the current good living standards of the majority of farmers in the Chu Empire were achieved. Although they have not completely escaped poverty, and even quite a few peasant families cannot have enough to eat all year round, they are still better than any traditional feudal dynasty. Times are much better.
And there will be a series of policy advancements in the future, and the sixth phase of the agricultural development plan will be launched starting next year.
The Chu Empire had a very strong grasp on the basic base of farmers.
Needless to say, the new industrial and commercial class was able to develop only because of the many supportive policies of the Great Chu Empire and its emphasis on industry and commerce. To a certain extent, they were actually the same group of people as the bureaucratic class in the Great Chu Empire.
If you don’t have money, what books can you read? Which university to take? What kind of official would you be if you didn't go to college?
The fees for secondary and higher education in the Great Chu Empire were very expensive.
As for the issue of class mobility, it is not a problem, because the education system of the Da Chu Empire also has a scholarship policy specifically for poor and talented children. As long as you have enough ability, you can study for free and then engage in politics and business, integrating into Da Chu. among the empire’s interest groups.
In other words, talents from the bottom can be continuously absorbed into the ruling class.
Without the talents of the Mudlegs to take the lead, a group of Mudlegs who have not read a book for a few days will not be able to rebel if they want to!
Therefore, the talented people in the mud, the emerging industrial and commercial groups, and the bureaucratic group are actually the same group of people.
It belongs to the state where I am in you and you are in me.
In this case, although there will be conflicts of interest, they are all internal conflicts. As long as they are properly coordinated and handled, there will be no problems.
Peasants, the new industrial and commercial class, the bureaucratic class, plus an aristocratic class that is actually very small in number and seems to have great influence, but actually has little influence, together constitute the various interest groups in the Great Chu Empire.
However, with the development of industry and commerce, a new interest group appeared in the Chu Empire: workers!
In the beginning, there were not many workers, even hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of people.
After all, the Chu Empire had a population of more than 100 million in its early years. The millions of workers back then were nothing compared to this huge population and technology.
Even if they all rebel, the Chu Empire will be able to deploy a large army to suppress them in minutes.
However, as the industry and commerce of the Chu Empire continued to develop and the economic structure continued to transform, the output value of the secondary and tertiary industries accounted for an increasing proportion of the economy, and the corresponding population in the secondary and tertiary industries also increased. As the number increases, the problem gradually becomes more serious.
One million workers is nothing, but ten million? What about fifty million? Or even 100 million in the future?
Protecting their interests in this way, or more simply, how to ensure that they will not rebel, is what Luo Zhixue focused on after this northern tour.
During this northern tour, Luo Zhixue saw many industries
In cities, he saw that there were tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of workers in some cities. He was pleased to see the rapid development of industry and commerce, but he was also wary and even worried: once the interests of such a large group of workers were suppressed for a long time, , then all kinds of dissatisfaction will breed.
In the beginning, they may just go on strike, but if there are careerists who incite them in the process, then the strike will turn into a massacre. Once the massacre reaches a large scale and becomes normalized, it will turn into a rebel... The uprising came.
Even to a certain extent, the military and even senior bureaucrats will choose to acquiesce or even join them for their own interests. At that time, it will be time to change the regime.
In the agricultural era, farmers were the main force in uprisings.
But in the industrial age, workers were the main force in the uprising.
This is determined by productivity. To be honest, Luo Zhixue did not notice this before. Instead, he focused his work on the farmers for a long time, thereby neglecting the workers.
However, after this northern tour, Luo Zhixue believed that it was very urgent to improve the welfare benefits of the workers and appease the workers.
Because there are already tens of millions of workers in the Chu Empire, and there are even more if you count the workers in the tertiary industry. Among them, the number of workers at the bottom or in the service industry is extremely large.
At the same time, the living standards of workers are not very good.
The industry and commerce of the Great Chu Empire are developing rapidly, and the economic growth rate is very good every year, but the living standards of the workers have not been improved accordingly.
It seems that wages have increased. For example, in the early years, the average monthly salary of ordinary workers in Songjiang Prefecture was about two Chu Yuan, but now it has reached four Chu Yuan.
But the living expenses in Songjiang Prefecture have also increased a lot, especially the local real estate prices that have not only doubled, but several times.
At the same time, the prosperity of the empire's industrial and commercial economy has not only doubled, but has been doubled many times.
In other words, the workers have not actually enjoyed many benefits brought by the rapid development of industry and commerce in recent years!
Uneven distribution of benefits, or the gap between the rich and the poor is too large. This is a serious problem currently existing in the Chu Empire.
After more than two decades of rapid economic growth, workers’ living standards have not seen much practical improvement!
Most of the benefits of industrial development have been taken away by capital.
This even includes a large amount of official capital and royal capital.
In the past, Luo Zhixue didn't feel deeply about it, but after this trip to the north, even if what he saw were superficial and even beautified things, after a series of data comparisons, Luo Zhixue could still detect that the gap between the rich and the poor was too large. The problem has become more serious.
Although at present, the workers do not have much self-awareness, and when comparing their lives, they will still make comparisons with the pre-Ming Dynasty or the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
After comparison, I feel that living like this now is still acceptable. That is because this generation of workers was either born in the pre-Ming Dynasty or in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
They experienced a lot of hardships in their early life. At that time, having enough food was a luxury. Therefore, now they work hard and can barely have enough food for themselves and their families. It is a rare life for them. Satisfied.
But...what about the future?
What will happen to these people who were born twenty years after Chengshun and thirty years after Chengshun have grown up?
When they grow up, the living standards they compare with are not those of the pre-Ming Dynasty or the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but the 1920s and 1930s when the empire's economy grew rapidly.
Working hard to barely have enough to eat is no longer their pursuit, but a better life is their pursuit.
People's desires will change with the changes of the times.
This also means that the empire's economic policies must continue to innovate with the times!
You can't always satisfy people's desires, but you have to maintain a minimum balance.
Even, you can let everyone be poor together, but you can't just sideline people.
The poor can't lift the pot, but the people on the other side enjoy spicy food every day.
After all, people always suffer not from poverty but from inequality!
If the current wealth distribution model in the Chu Empire still follows the old method, Luo Zhixue estimates that he will probably see a large-scale workers' uprising in his lifetime!
After all, no matter how well the country develops and how good the economy is, it is of no use if the benefits do not fall on ordinary workers. Even the growing gap between the rich and the poor will have the opposite effect: arousing anger and even resistance among the workers.
They will ask: The country is so powerful, and I have worked hard, why can’t I still support my family in Hukou? Let your children go to school?
The average life span is even worse than that of farmers...
Where has all the money gone? Who has taken away the benefits of the country’s economic development?
They will not think too much, let alone consider the interests of the country and the nation. They will not hesitate to think that the money has been stolen by the powerful and capitalists.
They will be dissatisfied and angry!
This then evolved into situations that Luo Zhixue did not want to see, such as strikes, swings, uprisings and the like.
Of course, these are the most extreme situations, and Luo Zhixue will not let such extreme situations happen.
Therefore, when he saw that the economy has grown rapidly in the past ten years, but the living standards of workers have not increased with it, he noticed the problem and immediately prepared to improve it!
This led to the original public speech and the current initiative to establish minimum wage standards and maximum working hours.
Luo Zhixue wants to take the interests of workers into consideration, so that workers and farmers together become the foundation of the empire, rather than external unstable factors.
The four major strata of farmers, workers, businessmen, and bureaucrats must be integrated and maintain a basic balance, and there must be up and down circulation channels between them.
Only in this way can the empire truly stabilize and maintain rapid development.
These issues were what Luo Zhixue considered and paid attention to after returning to Jinling City.
After detailed consideration, and after many ministers also submitted corresponding memorials, Luo Zhixue finally issued an order in December of the 29th year of Chengshun to convene an enlarged meeting of the Imperial Council to discuss the formulation of minimum wage standards. Working hours, labor contracts and a series of policies to protect the interests of workers.
After the news was announced, although the meeting had not yet discussed a result, it still caused a huge stir in the world. The majority of workers shouted "Long live His Majesty!"
From ancient times to the present, no ruler has ever truly cared about the interests of workers, until the current Emperor Luo Zhixue of the Chu Empire!
