Established a millennium family since King Wu defeated Zhou

Chapter 991 Jiangnan
In real life, a tiny, even unnoticed spark falling on the grassland may cause a fire that destroys everything.

In politics, a small incident can lead to the collapse of a political unity.

What's more, Luo Changqing stirred up a huge wave. After this first prime minister of the dynasty, the prime minister who was truly second only to the emperor and above everyone else, revealed his goals without any concealment and rebuked the opposition party in a sharp and serious manner.

Everyone realized that a political storm was coming.

Political struggles exist at all times, but even political struggles can be divided into big struggles and small struggles.

The smallest ones are nothing more than conflicts of interest among small families, which can be easily handled by learning to compromise.

Anything bigger is nothing more than a struggle for power, which is too low-level for the Luo family.

The most terrifying thing is the struggle over the route. In this kind of struggle, it doesn’t matter whether a minister has broken the law, done something wrong, has ability or merit!

The only thing that matters is what you support, what you approve of, and which side you stand on!
In the eyes of most people, Luo Changqing's actions prove that King Luo is dissatisfied with the current situation in the Tang Dynasty and he wants to change the current land system and human system.

This is going to be a war!
……

In many corners of the empire, many powerful people have fiercely criticized Luo Changqing's policies.

Luo Changqing is not the only one who knows about the various countries. Many knowledgeable conservatives are at least aware of the changes around them.

"Luo Changqing's release of slaves is only the first step. The next step is to seize the population from us."

Of course, because there was no economics, there was no such profound term as land economic system.

For the landed aristocrats, they more vividly portrayed it as a war for talent.

"Luo Changqing thinks we don't understand, but we can see that what happened in Annan Province was to drive the farmers off the land, out of our control, and then into the factories, and become controlled by those businessmen.

Luo's is the biggest merchant. One third of the clothes sold in the world are produced by Luo's. Do you think we don't know anything?"

They didn't understand what industrialization was. For most people, when they thought about this point, Luo's conspiracy was already obvious, because the largest weaving mill and other factories in Jiangnan were run by Luo.

In this way, Luo's family is seizing benefits from them.

Some people were hesitant to talk. In fact, the Luo family was also the largest land aristocracy. The reason why the Luo family could open the largest factory in Jiangnan was because all the land in Suzhou Prefecture in Jiangnan belonged to the Luo family, and all the people in Suzhou Prefecture in Jiangnan also belonged to the Luo family. The strong foundation made it easy for the Luo family to open a weaving factory.

It's not that no one wants to learn from Luo, but some things in this world are hard to learn. The feudal customs of the aristocracy and gentry are incompatible with this commercialization.

In fact, even the success of the Luo family was due to the Luo family's power, not because of how superior the Luo family's business methods were. If it weren't for those high-ranking officials in the Luo family, the weaving factory would have gone bankrupt countless times.

"Are we just not going to do anything?"

Someone said unwillingly: "Haven't you heard?
Last month, an official in Yangzhou Prefecture was blocked at his door by merchants demanding money. In the end, he had to seek help from a noble person to resolve the issue. It can be said that he was extremely embarrassed.

If this continues, those despicable businessmen will really ride on our heads.

Agriculture is the foundation of the world, and commerce is the end of all industries. Merchants should kneel down at our feet and offer us their money. Only if we reward them with food can they have food to eat. If we don’t reward them, they should die.

I heard that some businessmen want to set up a chamber of commerce and hope that the court can issue some laws related to business.

Now that I have some money, I really don’t know who is more valuable and who is less valuable in this world! "

"well.

The most important thing is that His Majesty has also been bewitched by Luo Changqing, and he doesn’t know who is the loyal minister and who is the treacherous minister.

No businessman, no traitor.

This is a wise saying passed down by our ancestors.

Those businessmen only care about money. How can they be loyal to the emperor and the country? If the businessmen gain power, will they be loyal to Your Majesty?

How come Your Majesty doesn't understand such a simple truth?

We must do something, otherwise the Tang Dynasty will cease to be a country."

After hearing this, someone's eyes suddenly lit up, "What do you think would happen if some of the things that happened in Annan Province happened in the Tang Dynasty?"

Ok?
Several people turned their heads and fell into deep thought.

As the name suggests, the Annan Province was directly under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, but this direct jurisdiction was different from that of the Central Plains. After all, Annan was far away. Even if some railways were built, in the steam age, it still mainly relied on naval control.

In such frontier areas, the country is far away from the emperor, the people have a strong sense of autonomy and information is relatively isolated.

If some things happening in Annan Province were to spread to the Tang Dynasty, they would be considered treason.

"Tell me more about it."

The man smiled sinisterly and said, "Since nothing happened, we can make up something. As long as there is some ironclad evidence to prove that they are harmful to the Tang Dynasty, I don't believe that Your Majesty will agree to Luo Changqing's reforms.

And it's not hard to find such things. In Annan, there are all kinds of radical ideas. I even heard that some people proposed not wanting an emperor. If such remarks were found among the rebels during the process of suppressing the rebellion and then known to the emperor, what would be the consequences? "

Everyone shuddered. "Is there really such a person? How can there be no emperor in this world?"

"Of course there are, after all, there are all kinds of crazy people in this world, they are just ridiculous people.

The sky cannot exist without the sun, and the earth cannot exist without the monarch. If they don't know such a simple truth, how can they achieve anything? "Several people laughed out loud. Yes, how can there be no emperor in this world? Without the emperor, how can people live?

"Then the problem now is how to get these people to participate in a sudden rebellion under our control. These people must be real, and their ideas must also be real. If they are simply fake, the Luo family will deal us a fatal blow. Only the bloody reality will make His Majesty pay attention to us, and let His Majesty know who are the real loyal ministers, who are the ones who hope that the Tang Dynasty can go further, and who can protect the Li family's throne!"

After a series of discussions, they roughly worked out the details and finally made up their minds, "Let's do it this way. Once we achieve something here, there will be more than just a few people standing in the same trench with us. I firmly believe that we will definitely achieve complete victory in this struggle."

If someone doesn't know the inside story, they might really think that these people are discussing something important. Little do they know that these people are racking their brains to become reactionaries who hinder the progress of history in order to protect their own shady interests.

……

The distribution of factories in Datang is now quite complex, with several large industrial zones across the country spewing out billowing black smoke all day long. Since there is industrialization, urbanization should naturally follow, but this is where the problem lies.

There were already a large number of towns in the Tang Dynasty. In these towns, there were many farmers who had difficulty surviving in the surrounding areas and came to the cities to seek work. Therefore, when factories were established, most of these factories were built near or in the original big cities.

In other words, places that were originally towns have been further urbanized and have long enjoyed the convenience brought by steam, and even a whole set of urban facilities, while many people living in rural areas are still living in the past and have not enjoyed the fruits of the steam age.

Whether they like it or not, these people have in fact become the supporting force of the conservatives. These people are also the most supportive of the patriarchal system and will not even look at any other new ideas.

The young people within Rockwell knew this, but they were also very clear about one thing, which was that the productivity in the steam age was pretty much this.

The support for transportation, communications, and military strength has basically reached its limit. It is simply a dream to rely on the current productivity to completely transform a giant empire like the Tang Dynasty.

But the Luo family is very optimistic about the future, because the Luo family is not just blindly conducting research in the laboratory. In many provinces and countries far away from the empire, the Luo family has set up laboratory scales according to the population size in order to recruit various talents.

And it is easy to do something outside the empire. In some places, Luo's laboratory can do whatever it wants without considering the political impact.

The effect is obvious. The progress in thermodynamics has allowed practical inventions to move forward significantly again.

Science changes the world, this is Rockwell's motto now.

Without steam, the empire would have collapsed more than a hundred years ago, and now it is another great change.

Steam is great, but according to theoretical calculations of thermodynamics, the efficiency of a steam engine is only a few percent. When this value appeared in the scientific community, everyone realized that in the future there must be a power source that is more efficient than a steam engine.

And what will be produced from the laboratory in the future will change the world again. After this theory appeared, many people have begun to study machines that are more efficient than steam engines.

Wise people change the world. The change of energy from wood to coal has brought about tremendous changes, so another group of people also began to look for new alternative energy sources. These affairs, either funded by some people, or funded by big businessmen who are eager to gain more profits, or led by the Rockefeller family, are rapidly moving the world forward.

Perhaps one day something powerful enough to change the balance of power will appear in the laboratory. Luo is not surprised by this and has great expectations for it.

Changes always occur in areas where imperial power is weak. This may be the choice made by the Luo family after seeing the powerful conservatives within the Tang Dynasty.

There is no other region in the world that has such powerful conservatives as the Central Plains. These conservatives have experienced several strengthenings by the Luo family and have reached the ultimate pinnacle of feudalism. They hold extremely powerful forces in their hands. The emerging classes that are still in their embryonic stage may be killed instantly as soon as they show up.

……

Jiangnan Province of the Tang Empire.

This is one of the bridgeheads of the emerging class south of the Yangtze River, the other being Lingnan. The abundant population and historical reasons have led to a relatively relaxed political environment here. In addition, due to the developed maritime trade, Jiangnan has close exchanges with Penglai, Andong, Annan and other provinces. Many new intellectuals, that is, people who hold ideas different from the current mainstream of the Tang Dynasty, are exerting their influence here.

To put it more clearly, there are too many slowdowns here, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, there are indeed quite a few emerging classes that are involved with these people, and even fund them to promote some ideas that are considered to be extremely rebellious in the eyes of the empire.

The roots of this idea partly come from ancient Rome, but mainly from Xuanmen. The theory of Xuanmen believes that the souls of people born in this world are equal before the Su Wang, which is one of the fundamental doctrines of Xuanmen.

This doctrine led to the birth of a series of subsequent ideas, the root of which is that since all people are equal in front of the Su Wang, why is this world born with distinctions between high and low levels?

Of course, the Su Wang could not be wrong, so the mistake could only be the royal nobles who did not conform to the Su Wang's teachings. Some people demanded that the king, princes, generals and ministers give an explanation for this.

These people were rightly considered crazy, and most who dared to speak out would be thrown into jail for blasphemy and treason.

Of course, these extremely radical people are still a minority at present, but most people still believe that the current corrupt and oppressive system should have been abolished long ago.

This is actually a further development of humanism. The soil for humanism has existed in the Chinese nation since ancient times.

The king should pay attention to the voices of the grassroots, rather than just focusing on the officials and nobles of the empire, and should try to change the current system.

But the system of the empire cannot be easily changed. To a certain extent, this hierarchical system is necessary for the existence of the empire.

If the hierarchy does not exist, the empire will be destroyed.

Of course, because the whole world, whether it is the Tang Dynasty or its vassal states, is still all monarchies, not so many people really think that the hierarchy can be abolished.

But changing the laws to save the country from the cruel classical empire is what many people are doing.

In today's world, the role of people should be valued. The monarch can rule people, but the monarch should not wantonly kill his subjects who have not done anything wrong.

This is not in line with the teachings of the King of Su, nor is it in line with the principles of benevolence and forgiveness taught by ancient sages.

This is a huge ideological shock. The power of life and death is the power of the emperor. Without the power of life and death, can the emperor still be called the emperor?

This brings us to the second question.

Son of Heaven.

Did he really accept the mandate of heaven to rule the world?

(End of this chapter)