Established a millennium family since King Wu defeated Zhou

Chapter 1002 Future
The weapon of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons.

Europe was in ruins, and facing the Tang Dynasty's army, which was as strong as a mountain and had overwhelming strength, they had no chance of winning.

The entire European coastline has been blocked, no ship can go out to sea, and all ports have been taken over by the Tang Navy. This is an inevitable outcome.

That's it, above the ocean.

If you are strong, you will become stronger; if you are weak, you will perish. There is no room for luck.

On the vast land, the situation is not as exaggerated as on the sea. The willpower of people on land is still extremely strong.

But now the Tang army has been transformed. Its firepower has increased more than tenfold compared to a decade ago. It is advancing steadily. The only obstacle is probably street fighting.

At the same time, it is also the most crucial thing.

The resistance within European countries was not that exaggerated. It did not reach the point where they would fight for every inch of land and not give up an inch of territory.

Nationalism was just emerging, and the generations that had lived under imperial rule were not yet dead.

Although the two sides are not of the same race, they share the same language and beliefs. Moreover, during the past 100 years of imperial rule, the empire did not specifically exploit Europe.

On the contrary, the entry of the empire brought technology and imperial examinations.

In fact, when Rome rebelled, the banner it raised was not a rebellion against imperial rule, but a rebellion against royal power.

Native kingship.

Now the armies of the Empire returned to loyal Europe.

It was originally thought that the old aristocratic kings would come back, but it turned out that the empire had no plans to restore the old aristocracy. Instead, it was preparing to set up provinces here and completely transform the last piece of land with kingdoms and duchies in the world into a provincial system.

Luo Changqing's idea was not to restore the old nobles. His original words were, "If we hand over the restored country to those useless old nobles, the people in the kingdom will stand against us, and those old nobles will never be the opponents of the new school party. The empire will fall into new disputes, and the cycle will repeat. Now is the best opportunity to change all the kingdoms into autonomous provinces."

Having said that, Luo Changqing still took the reality into consideration and did not completely fall into idealism.

The most ideal situation would of course be to make the new provinces similar to the Central Plains Province, but that has proven to be impossible.

If it weren't for tools like wireless telegraph, it would be difficult to manage even the provinces.

He set up autonomous provinces throughout Europe, where local people governed local people, but the governor had to be sent by the central court.

Doing so is in line with local traditions and can also strengthen central government control over local areas. It is a situation that can be achieved by everyone taking a step back.

Under this strategy, Datang's progress in Europe was very smooth, following Luo Changqing's ideas.

In name, the world has been reunited under one banner, thus avoiding the continued fission of nationalism and the constant confrontation and division in the world.

The war lasted four years, from the time the Tang army set out for Europe to the time it ended, and the Tang army won a decisive victory.

When the news reached the Tang Dynasty, the emperor was very excited and held a grand celebration banquet in the Tianshou Palace.

The bright lights, with the crackling sound of electricity, illuminated the entire palace like a palace in heaven, and even the night seemed to have disappeared.

As the greatest contributor to the Yonghe Reform, the emperor frequently toasted Luo Changqing, and other ministers also frequently toasted him. Luo Changqing rarely got himself drunk.

When he woke up, it was already noon the next day. His grandson heard the noise and walked in from the outside and said softly, "Grandfather, His Majesty said you were drunk. You don't need to report for duty today. You can just rest in the mansion."

After saying that, he saw Luo Changqing rubbing his head. After hesitating for a moment, he asked, "Grandfather, were you unhappy yesterday?"

In the eyes of ordinary people, the first time Luo Changqing got drunk in his life must have been a day of great joy for the empire, and he was extremely excited.

But Luo Qingyi, who had been serving Luo Changqing, knew that this was not the case. No matter how happy the event was, it would not make his grandfather lose his composure like this. Now it seemed more like he was unhappy.

But the empire is unified, the world is unified, what is there to be unhappy about?

Luo Changqing looked at his grandson, who was in his forties, gentle and refined, and one of the very few sons of the Luo family who remained by his side.

Luo Changqing kept him by his side in the hope that he would inherit the position of the head of the Luo family in the future. Luo Qingyi and the other Luo family members also knew about this.

Luo Changqing's face darkened, and he said softly: "Ayi, you should know that I kept you by my side because I hoped you could inherit the throne of King Luo, but I don't think I ever asked you, are you willing?"

From the perspective of ordinary people, being able to inherit the throne of King Luo is a blessing from heaven, and naturally, one would be willing to do so.

but.

That's naturally an ordinary person.

Because ordinary people have to rely on their family to exist, but this is not the case with the Luo family. Heroes have their own strengths and great ambitions.

Most of the people in Rockefeller's family are now specializing in science. In just over a hundred years, the technological explosion has been achieved. From the discovery of electricity to the production of electrical products, it has become an applicable technology in a short period of time, which is inseparable from the Rockefeller family.

The pleasure of changing the world without relying on our ancestors is addictive.

When it comes to Luo Qingyi's generation and the next generation of young people, most of the Luo family's direct descendants avoid the position of King Luo. Compared to politics, they prefer their current life.

And it’s actually changing the world.

Fertilizers, antibiotics, the emergence of each new invention is greater than the contribution of ten thousand politicians to the world.

Even when they entered politics, they were still studying new paths. At first, some people took the path of new learning, but after Luo Changqing introduced a large number of new learnings, the Luo family began to look for new paths, and new learning became a thing of the past.

Luo Qingyi quickly passed over these things in his mind, and replied to Luo Changqing in a deep voice: "Grandfather, there is no such thing as willingness or unwillingness, but according to your order, all of you brothers are talented and can be of great use to the world. Your grandson is incompetent, and I must protect this family foundation. I can no longer shirk my responsibility."

Luo Changqing was silent for a while and let Luo Qingyi go out first.

Luo Qingyi took his leave, while Luo Changqing himself was quietly thinking, with a hint of sadness flashing across his face from time to time.

After a long time, he let out a sigh.

Today, the world seems to be thriving, the mountains and rivers are unified, and the national power of the Tang Dynasty has reached its peak.

But Luo Changqing did not think so. In order to unify the country and strengthen the power of the Tang Dynasty, what he did was actually to strengthen the power of the emerging class and change the foundation of the small peasant economy of the Tang Dynasty.

Only by making the Tang Dynasty an industrial country as well can it defeat other industrial countries. From the beginning of the reform, Luo Changqing knew this clearly, but he had no choice. He had always buried this matter deep in his heart. He kept silent about what he saw, and let it go if he didn't see it.

As the old saying goes, ignorance is bliss.

But this statement is not accurate. The ignorance is fearless only in certain circumstances. In fact, the ignorant are the most fearful.

The divine right of kings is necessary for the existence of imperial power, making people believe that the emperor is born to rule the world. This is the source of all legal principles. Without this legal principle, nothing can be taken for granted.

The ignorant believe in these things the most, but in an industrialized society, these things have no room to exist. The first thing industrialization does is to eliminate illiteracy. Hired workers are a more advanced class than farmers. Industrialization will break the barriers of monsters, making it impossible for ghosts to hide, and false gods will bring down their kingdom.

When there are more and more people like this, the basis for the existence of the imperial system will disappear, because imperial power itself is associated with fear and sacredness.

The victory or fall of the Tang Dynasty was accidental and could be changed, but the disappearance of the ancient autocratic monarchy was inevitable.

The emperor was very happy at the celebration banquet last night, but how could Luo Changqing explain to him how much it cost to accomplish this feat?

He both saved the Tang Dynasty and pushed it into the abyss.

but.

He had to do it.

He loved the Tang Dynasty, but he could not love it with the well-being of the people of the world.

How could such a smart man not know how to make the Tang Dynasty last longer?

All they need to do is smash all the factories in the world, let everyone go back to farming, and then concentrate the most advanced technology, such as muskets, cannons, and other powerful weapons in the hands of the royal family, and then use strict household registration to confine everyone to the village, not allowing them to read and open their minds, not allowing them to know the outside world. As long as they have fertilizers, they will not starve to death, and they will not rebel.

Then those who hold weapons are promised hereditary benefits, and they are gathered into a huge imperial interest group. With current technology, it is entirely possible to suppress other civilians with only a few people.

In this way, the Tang Dynasty would most likely last for a thousand years, or even longer.

But that was not what he wanted. The world was a slave country, and if anyone wanted to do that, he would just go forward and fight them.

Sometimes Luo Changqing would wonder why he could still hold the position of prime minister in such good health at such an old age.

Luo Changqing remembered that the emperor once joked that there was fire burning in his eyes.

It's like he's unwilling to accept something and feels uneasy about something.

Luo Changqing thought to himself that he had everything and lacked nothing, so why should he be unwilling?

Now it suddenly occurred to me that he was really unwilling to accept this.

It's not that he was reluctant to give up the imperial system, but the new school of thought that replaced the imperial system was just a low-end version of the imperial system in Luo Changqing's view. All the senators in Rome were big businessmen, landlords and military officers.

In Rome he did not see equality for all, and there was a huge rentier class, which was even more serious than in the Tang Dynasty. He hated new learning, so he was unwilling to let it become the mainstream of the world.

So he lived his life doing his best to suppress the status of new learning, even though the economic foundation was changing, he still suppressed the political system.

If one day a theory that he approves of emerges, perhaps he will no longer toss and turn like this.

……

Luo Changqing only rested for one day before he started to handle government affairs again. After the empire was unified again, government affairs increased sharply. The amount of government affairs in the vassal states and provinces was completely different. Fortunately, most of them were autonomous provinces, otherwise they would not be able to handle it. The current bureaucratic system in Luoyang could not cope with such a huge workload.

Theoretically, there is a limit to the number of subordinates that one person can interact with at the same time. The more provinces are set up, of course the less power one has, but the more government affairs that need to be handled at the same time.

The lowest level of administrative division in the Tang Dynasty was the county, which had not changed since the Qin Dynasty.

Above the county, there was initially a prefecture, then a state, and then a prefecture, but eventually these became a higher-level administrative unit, the state in the Han Dynasty, the circuit in the Tang Dynasty, and the province today.

Now that the world is unified, Luo Changqing has to face a problem. If he wants to centrally control Europe, he must readjust the divisions and control the number of provinces to around thirty.

This is because today’s communications have wireless telegraphs, so efficiency has been greatly improved.

Adjusting administrative divisions is not an easy task and there are many things to consider.

He considered a lot and first separated the North Atlantis Province, South Atlantis Province, Oceania Province, and Yanzhou Province. These four provinces were large in territory but small in population.

Then there is the Penglai Province which has existed for a long time. Luo Changqing assigned the Jizi Peninsula to the Penglai Province and set the capital of the Penglai Province on the Jizi Peninsula.

The same thing was done to Yizhou Island and Qiongzhou Road, with the capitals of these islands placed on land and assigned to Lingnan Province.

The central region was divided into Liaodong Province.

Hebei Province, east of Taihang Mountains and north of the Yellow River.

Henan Province, south of the Yellow River and north of the Huai River.

The Jiangbei Province and the Jiangnan Province were separated by the Yangtze River.

The provinces are divided by rivers and mountains, creating a situation where you are in me and I am in you.

Basically, the original provincial borders were torn into pieces again, and then the governors were replaced again, hoping that this method could restore stability in the Tang Dynasty in a short period of time.

But Luo Changqing couldn't really say how effective this method would be, because the current situation in the world has changed a lot.

To govern a country today, we can no longer rely solely on past experience, but must instead create new methods ourselves.

Luo Changqing chose to listen to the voices from the people. Only by knowing what the current society needs can he govern better and solve these problems.

Among the various feedback information received from the public, Luo Changqing could understand the deep meaning behind most of the requests at a glance.

This deep meaning may not necessarily be thought of by the person who makes the suggestion, but their actions will involuntarily produce such an effect.

Most of these voices from the public are asking for improvements to some unreasonable areas, and these improvements, fundamentally speaking, are calls for decentralization, for putting the power of many government offices in a cage and not using that power arbitrarily.

Otherwise, farmers would not be able to grow crops well, hired laborers would not be able to work, and merchants would not be able to open shops, and the empire would really collapse.

Luo Changqing is naturally not the kind of reactionary leader who only cares about one family and one surname, so he will inevitably follow this historical trend.

The economic base determines the superstructure. This is a truth and a law.

But just as history is an upward spiral, powerful people can artificially prolong or reverse this process. This is the role of heroes in history.

Luo Changqing is a trend-setter in the long river of history. His actions can promote or delay the development of history because he is the highest person in the world. Now he decides to do his best to push the empire to adapt to the current economy.

Now that he had made his choice, he was no longer confused. Although the countries established by the New School Party were defeated, the development of the emerging classes flourished, especially in the frontier provinces far away from the mainland of the empire and in the autonomous provinces.

This is quite reasonable. The closer to the political center, the more development must consider the political impact. Economic development will naturally not be very good. Only by focusing on economic development can we achieve the best results.

A new round of industrial reforms soon took place in various provinces within the empire, and the electrical age was rapidly and completely replacing the steam age.

The autonomous province of Persia ushered in good days in this era. The current Persian province is not only the original Persian Kingdom, but also the vast lands around it, which are all the territory of the Persian province.

A large amount of oil was excavated in the desert. As an autonomous province, according to the laws of the empire, they could keep a portion of it as provincial funds. The most important point was that Persia could use oil to exchange for many items from other provinces.

Even though they were in the same empire, the game between the imperial center and the various provinces still existed. It was a simple truth that for each province to stay in the empire, the first thing they had to ensure was profitability.

If it is not profitable, it can be tolerated, but if certain provinces continue to suffer losses, the central government of the empire must ensure that it can cope with the resistance of the provinces.

The more upper-class people in each province, especially the industrialists, wanted their goods to flow freely in the empire, but they did not want goods from other provinces to enter their own provinces.

Thus, a life-and-death competition emerged. If one wanted to achieve the goal, there was only one way, which was to formulate local protection policies through the provincial government.

There is absolutely no need for the provincial government to refuse in this regard. Not to mention the industrial and commercial taxes paid by the enterprises in the province, the other funds and benefits paid to the government can all make the local operation better and bring political achievements. After all, the taxes and fees paid to the national treasury every year are part of the political achievements.

Therefore, the government and the local large factories could of course just get along with each other. As for foreign goods, a portion of likin was levied, which was actually a disguised tariff. In this case, unless the quality and cost of foreign goods were completely superior to local ones, it would be impossible for them to outperform local ones in commercial competition.

Once one person starts doing this, other provinces will soon follow suit, and a tariff war will begin. The tariffs will become increasingly high and numerous.

They certainly won't really say that taxes will be increased upon entering the province, but they will use security fees, health taxes, etc. as requirements. As for local factories, there are various exemptions and reductions since they have made "significant contributions" after all.

Naturally, this kind of thing could not be hidden from Luo Changqing. After he knew about it, he was so angry that he laughed. He knew that this group of businessmen would never do anything good, and the bureaucrats who were assimilated by the businessmen would eventually become their minions.

Now he has really been given a surprise. He always gets such surprises. He will do anything to make money.

This kind of strong local protectionism, if Luo Changqing remembers correctly, the last time it occurred was before the steam age began.

That was a purely feudal era, when goods from the Luo family and the royal family could be circulated throughout the country. Unexpectedly, after so much progress now, we have actually gone backwards in this regard.

Sure enough, his judgment of the new school was correct. The Roman model was a low-end version of the imperial system. In many ways, it was not as good as the imperial system. At least in the imperial system, if a wise ruler appeared, the country could be restored to order. However, in the Roman republican model of great aristocrats, it was impossible for a wise ruler to appear. Even a heroic figure could not get much power and could only be controlled by the merchants behind him.

Although I complained in my heart, the problem still had to be solved. This incident caused great harm to the empire, but it was really difficult to figure out how to solve it. The emergence of local protectionism was because the development of a region would really bring obvious benefits.

For most people in this world, instead of struggling for themselves, it is better to see where they are reborn. Just like in the Bang Zhou period, even if they were ordinary people, if they were reborn in Luo State, it would naturally be much better than being reborn in other countries.

Now, if I could be reborn in Luoyang, it would certainly be better than being reborn in other places. Living in Luoyang, no matter how poor you are, there are a large number of projects in Luoyang that can benefit everyone, and the public security in Luoyang is far better than any other place.

These are all the invisible benefits of living in Luoyang, not to mention the money and meat that the royal family rewards from time to time, which are not available in other places in the empire.

There is another reason for the emergence of this kind of local protectionism, especially in frontier provinces, which is also related to the control of the empire itself. The Central Plains has a large population and is more stable, with a huge market and abundant human resources in factories.

In the past years, some countries and provinces in Asia and Europe were able to compete with the Central Plains because they did not have laws like the Empire and could compete by exploiting manpower. But now that the Empire is unified, the Empire's laws have begun to be implemented, and they must increase labor costs, which has dealt a heavy blow to them.

Therefore, it is inevitable to increase the sales costs of the Central Plains Province again. The idea behind this is very complicated, but it is a realistic option.

If this matter cannot be properly handled, the provinces that have just settled down will be in chaos again.

According to the information Luo Changqing obtained, there are factories in many provinces that violate the laws of the Tang Dynasty and are running at full capacity under the protection of local governors and bureaucrats.

In commercial competition, all kinds of despicable means can be used, and only the final winner will be remembered.

Moreover, there are now giants that monopolize a certain industry. Some of them unite, while others use various means to merge.

The reason is simple: monopoly can reduce costs again and improve competitiveness.

Luo Changqing has developed a habit over the years of never just looking at the surface, but analyzing the reasons behind these behaviors.

Although he is a politician, he is now more than just a bureaucrat. He may be one of the few people in the world who can eloquently analyze the theories behind new learning.

From the behavior of bureaucrats in various places, Luo Changqing judged one thing, that is, many bureaucrats in the empire have gradually been alienated, from feudal bureaucrats to newly learned bureaucrats.

People's hearts are wavering, and Luo Changqing is the one who allows it to float. He can't find any other way to give ideological education to these officials he once appointed.

After all, the entire empire was rapidly transforming towards industrialization, with more and more workers being employed in towns. Since the invention of chemical fertilizers and large machinery, the status of agriculture has declined significantly.

With the continuous advancement of urbanization, it has only been a few years from the unification of the empire to the present.

Europe, which had been reduced to ruins by the war, rebuilt an industrial system, and the level of urbanization was even higher than before.

Now in this country, it is the factory owners who hold the decisive power, and most of the empire's taxes are provided by industry and commerce.

The Luo's Money House, which was forced to withdraw, re-entered various provinces after the unification of the empire and assumed a large part of the responsibility. If these industries had major problems, the Luo's Money House would also be in trouble.

This is the reality today. Everything in the empire is tied to industry and commerce, and no one can make it go back.

Even if Luo Changqing held accountable those governors who violated the laws of the Tang Dynasty, they would say "the overall situation is more important."

Everything was destined from the moment we chose the current path of industrialization. Unless Luo Changqing is willing to smash the world to pieces, he can only accept the current reality.

This is also the reason why many factory owners nowadays act unscrupulously. The huge population can only be absorbed by factories. In this case, the factories must be able to make profits. Then, even if they exploit some employees, the local bureaucrats can only turn a blind eye as long as it does not cross the bottom line.

After all, judging from various financial reports, the current empire is constantly growing every moment, and the food produced, as well as various materials supported by industrialization, are growing at an extremely fast pace.

Industrial productivity far exceeds that of the agricultural era.

But Luo Changqing sensed a sense of danger from the current situation of the empire. This was his intuition.

He simply felt that the current world was like a situation where oil was boiling in a raging fire. It was not like this when the steam age was making great strides forward.

Until Luo Changqing received a new suggestion. In the past, most factories that wanted to expand with loans had to borrow from Luo’s Bank and other banks, or directly borrow from private individuals.

However, Luo's Money House's audit was too strict and basically no loans could be made. Other money houses also required collateral, and the interest rates for private loans were too high.

Now some people hope to establish a market that allows ordinary people to participate in factory investment and expansion with their own pocket money.

(End of this chapter)