Dashun Yongchang

Gu Jiang, who was sitting on Zhou Zhong's hand, was a little distracted. He felt that his step seemed a little too big.Although when he was studying, he thought about the legend of "becoming Tian Shelang in the morning and climbing to the Tianzitang in the evening", but that was just a young man's beautiful vision.Even a top three Jinshi who is proud of his youth will have to sit on the bench in the Imperial Academy for at least ten years to have a chance to stand out. It is impossible to reach the sky in one step.

With his reputation as the Gu family in Kunshan, he studied at home for 20 years, and took the opportunity of Emperor Hongguang's enthronement to write to the court, but he just got a position as a secretary of the Ministry of War from the ninth rank.What is a secretary?Officials who are in charge of internal affairs such as copying catalogues, sending and receiving documents, submitting and dismantling documents, keeping and supervising the use of seals, etc. in the yamen.

Although the transition from being an imperial supervisor to being a ninth-rank secretary, in the eyes of others, it is considered an exceptional promotion.After all, many people have spent most of their lives in the Imperial College but have not been able to get a job. Gu Jiang's letter to the court can be exchanged for a ninth rank, which is already the reputation of the Gu family in Kunshan. Many Kunshan gentry were dissatisfied.

But for Gu Jiang himself, he is actually quite disappointed. He actually hopes that the court can follow his letter to carry out a political change, so as to save this seemingly crumbling dynasty.This is also the basis for his further writing of the four theories of "On the Military System", "On the Situation", "On Tian Gong", and "On the Law of Money", and the reason why he took the initiative to invite the imperial court to go to Huai'an to explore the reality of the peasant army.

What Gu Jiang didn't expect was that the Hongguang court valued his family background but was unwilling to use his talent and learning. Li Zicheng, a rebel, praised his reform ideas, and adopted and promoted their implementation without hesitation.In less than three months, he has now become one of the decision makers in the Marshal's Mansion, and he doesn't know whether he should be happy or sigh.

Li Zicheng, who was sitting at the top, didn't care about the thoughts of the five people below, he continued according to his own thoughts: "The highest program of Dashun, I have said many times before, is to realize the world of Datong.

However, the Datong World cannot be built in a day, so we have to set up intermediate goals one by one. When these goals are achieved one by one, the Datong World will be built.I think that on the way to the Datong world, the first intermediate goal we set up is the minimum program of Dashun.

What is this minimum program?I thought it was to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people.If we can't even solve the problem of people's food and clothing, how can we talk about a world of great harmony?Can the Datong world still starve to death?Therefore, solving the problem of food and clothing for the people is the primary task of our imperial court. "

Zhang Nai, Zhang Jiayu and the other five couldn't help but nodded when they heard this. Although the goal of a world of great harmony is a bit far away from them, after all, since Confucius proposed it, until now everyone still can't tell how to build a world of great harmony, but to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people , has always been the most concerned issue in all dynasties.

As long as it is not really insane, every court trying to maintain its own rule will regard the food and clothing of the people as its top priority.The difference between everyone is the question of whether it can be done.It's just that this primary task, which was valued by the dynasty, has always been paid more attention to in words, but not many policies have been implemented in practice.

When everyone was thinking about how to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people, Li Zicheng went on to say: "To solve the problem of food and clothing for the people, there have been many propositions and practices in all dynasties, but I think that to solve this problem, we First of all, we must unify an understanding, if we can’t unify this understanding, then talking about solving the problem of food and clothing for the people will be empty talk.”

Zhang Jiayu finally couldn't bear to ask Li Zicheng: "What exactly is the unified understanding that His Majesty said?"

Li Zicheng turned his attention to him, looked at him for a few breaths and then replied: "This unified understanding, I also mentioned before: labor is the only way to create wealth. Only when everyone agrees with this decision can we solve a problem." A series of problems of wealth creation and distribution.

Whether it is food, cotton cloth, or satin, they are all wealth created by human labor.If laborers do not produce, there will be no food, cotton cloth, and satin; if laborers are not given enough fruits of their labor, laborers will lose their motivation to create wealth, since excess food, cloth, and silk cannot be exchanged Who wants to produce more grain, cloth, and satin than the fruits of other people's labor? "

Zhang Nai was born in a peasant family, and he hated the imperial court and rich families the most, so he was the first to speak out in support: "Your Majesty is right. Farmers plow the land and weave cloth, but in the end they can't eat enough to keep warm. That's justified. Is it? The imperial court should establish a decree to let the peasants have enough food and clothing, this is what the imperial court should do."

Zhang Jiayu and Jiang Chen also joined Li Zicheng. The two of them are staunch supporters of the New Deal, and their purpose is different from the others who joined Dashun in order to keep their official positions. Dashun, the new regime, only took refuge in Dashun after promoting its own reform ideas.As long as it is beneficial to the theory and propaganda of the New Deal, both of them will almost choose to support it.

Gu Jiang hesitated for a moment, he and Zhou Zhong were both from prominent families, even if they became the upstarts of Dashun now, they had to think about it from the standpoint of the family.Gu Jiang finally accepted Li Zicheng's statement that labor creates wealth. The New Deal has come here, and it is obviously not enough without a brand-new theoretical system to support it. The past three cardinal principles and five constant etiquette obviously cannot carry the New Deal to the end. For the New Deal, I have to support Li Zicheng's thesis.

Zhou Zhong had more things to think about, but he didn't dare to stand up against Li Zicheng, so he had no choice but to say to Li Zicheng: "I am not against your majesty's judgment.

It's just that in "The Analects of Confucius o Xianwen": A gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness, and a villain is a metaphor for profit.One said. "Mencius" also said: Those who work hard govern others, and those who work hard govern others.Xunzi also said: Those who win righteousness will govern the world, and those who overcome righteousness will rule the world.

The struggle between old and new parties in the Song Dynasty, and the dispute between Donglin and the Eunuch Party during the Apocalypse, all revolved around righteousness and benefit.Although His Majesty's conclusion is good, but I am worried that it will be misused by others, and eventually become a banner for some people to attack dissidents.The minister is ignorant, but he is uneasy, so he dare not tell His Majesty the confusion in his heart. "

Li Zicheng was still in deep thought, but Zhang Nai couldn't help but retort: ​​"Zhou's participation in politics is a bit unreasonable. His Majesty just said that labor creates wealth, not that there is no need for benevolence and righteousness. How could there be so many fools jumping out. Let me tell you , Don’t be afraid to jump out, let him go back to study behind closed doors if he is willing to correct, and send him to teach overseas if he refuses to correct, and the world will be peaceful.”

Although he didn't agree with Zhou Zhong's point of view, Gu Jiang couldn't sit still when he heard Zhang Nai's words. He objected: "Yihou's words are wrong. People in the world talk about the affairs of the world. Your Majesty announced in public that he would protect freedom of speech. , If a scholar talks a few words about state affairs, he will be exiled overseas, what kind of freedom of speech is this?"

Seeing that the two parties were still going to reorganize, Li Zicheng finally interrupted them and said, "Okay, there's nothing to be arguing about. It's not impossible for Zhou Shenzheng to worry about it. Let's just discuss the matter and don't talk about it. .”

Only Zhang Nai and Gu Jiang sat back quietly, listening to Li Zicheng continue to say: "Indeed, there will be some people who cannot accept the New Deal, and finally use morality to oppose the New Deal.

Therefore, we have to explain Confucius' benevolence and righteousness, and explain in the name of the court what is great benevolence and righteousness, and what is small benevolence and small righteousness.For example, the Yellow Emperor conquered Jiuli, Guan Zhongzun Wang expelled the barbarians...Ming Taizu restored the Central Plains, etc., all of which are benevolent and righteous.Why?Because what they do is in the interests of the majority of the people.As for Zhuan Zhu, if you want to get rid of these assassins, it is a small benevolence and a small righteousness to sacrifice your life for others for some personal benefits.

Therefore, the righteousness of my Dashun is to let the people solve the problem of food and clothing, and the benefit of my Dashun is to encourage the people to produce.Anyone who violates this goal and talks about morality is nothing more than a rotten scholar and a villain.The Dashun Times should come up with a few weighty commentary articles as soon as possible to let the world understand this truth, and then those who jump out are not ordinary people who want freedom of speech, but enemies trying to overthrow the Dashun regime.What we defend is the freedom of speech of the people, not the freedom of speech of the enemy.I hope everyone can understand this point. "

Zhang Nai closed his mouth in satisfaction, and Zhou Zhong and others also fell silent. Li Zicheng then said: "Since we have mentioned that labor is the only way to create wealth, then I will talk about my own views on how we can use this The conclusion is to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people..."

Chapter 279 New Deal 94

While rubbing his temples, someone organized his language to summarize the political theories of later generations, "...to solve the problem of people's food and clothing depends on two points, sufficient distribution of social wealth and a social wealth distribution method that can satisfy the food and clothing of the whole people.

After confirming that labor is the only way to create wealth, then we can draw a conclusion that if we want to create enough wealth to feed and clothe the whole people, we can only rely on human labor, and to solve the problem of food and clothing for the whole people, we must put society Wealth is distributed as equitably as possible among the people.

This means that whether it is production or distribution of social wealth, the results of labor must be distributed around the labor process.So what are the main ways of working today?I think there are roughly two types, one is agricultural production labor, and the other is handicraft production labor. As for other labor methods, they are all attached to these two production labor methods and can hardly exist independently.

I believe that you should be familiar with these two ways of producing labor. Agricultural production provides food and raw materials for handicrafts, while handicraft production provides the utensils we use every day.We cannot live without agriculture, and we cannot live without handicrafts.Therefore, we can call agriculture the primary industry, handicrafts the secondary industry, and businesses other than agriculture and handicrafts the tertiary industry.

Judging from the current intelligence of various countries at home and abroad, the primary industry of each country occupies an absolute dominant position, and the social wealth created by the primary industry accounts for about [-]% of the total of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. The most populous industry, no matter which country it is in.In countries with developed agriculture, the basic population is also above the average.

So what does agricultural production need?It is land, labour, seeds, manure, implements and livestock.Except for farm tools, other farmers can solve it by themselves.

Suppose there is such a peasant family with two parents, two middle-aged couples, and one child. The family has 25 mu of land, each mu of land can produce 1 shi of grain, and the per capita consumption of rations is 3.6 shi. The food harvested by the family from the land minus the family's ration, then there is a surplus of 7 shi.So how much social wealth do you think this family created in a year?Is it 25 stone or 7 stone? "

Both Zhang Nai and Zhou Zhong chose 25 stones, while Zhang Jiayu, Jiang Chen and Gu Jiang chose 7 stones.After listening to the choices of the five people, Li Zicheng finally gave the answer, "Based on the calculation of planting 1 bucket per mu, 25 stones are needed to plant 2.5 acres of land, so 7 stones of seeds will be deducted from the remaining 2.5 stones of grain in this family. Only 4.5 shi of grain can be sold to the market in exchange for the necessities of life and production needed by the family.

The consumed rations and planting costs are necessary to maintain the survival and production of the labor force. This part of the food cannot be exchanged in the market, and naturally it cannot be regarded as newly increased social wealth.Only food that can be exchanged in the market can be called wealth. "

Zhang Nai was a little unconvinced and said: "Most farmers can't eat so much grain. They will save their own rations and exchange them in the market. Also, the imperial court's taxes and feed for livestock are considered maintenance The necessities of production, or wealth?"

Li Zicheng looked at him and nodded slightly and said: "The tax of the imperial court is considered wealth, because it has nothing to do with the production of farmers. Feed for feeding livestock is a necessity to maintain production. You are right. Most farmers cannot eat so much food. They The saved rations are exchanged for money or other materials, which can be regarded as increasing social wealth.

But what we are talking about now is how to make farmers have enough to eat.So these questions you raised can be ignored for now.We must let the peasants survive first, so that we can collect taxes from the social wealth he created, instead of forcing the peasants to pay taxes at the cost of reducing food rations. "

Zhang Jiayu, Jiang Chen, and Gu Jiang were thoughtful, and they roughly understood why Li Zicheng wanted to talk about agricultural production at this time.When Zhang Nai closed his mouth and began to think, Li Zicheng continued: "From the productive labor of this peasant family just now, we can draw two conclusions, one is that agricultural production and land are inseparable; , a year of hard work is barely enough to support a family, and there is not much food available for exchange in the market.

I call this family-based agricultural production model a small-scale peasant economy. The advantage of a small-scale peasant economy is that it has a high rate of self-sufficiency, and has little contact with the outside world except for some necessities of life and production.

So there was a ballad in the pre-Qin period that described this kind of small peasant life very realistically. I remember this ballad said: work at sunrise, and rest at sunset.Digging wells to drink, plowing fields to eat.What does Dili mean to me!

You see, as long as the land is there, these small peasant families can solve the problem of food and clothing by themselves, without the imperial court worrying about it.Therefore, if there is enough land in the world, then as long as we ensure that the land of these peasant households is not plundered by powerful families, the problem of food and clothing for the people in the world can also be solved.So is there enough land in the world to distribute to farmers? "

The answer is of course no, and there is no need for someone to come up with Malthus’s population theory. In fact, the scholar-bureaucrats of Ming Dynasty have already studied the issues of land and population.Especially the scholar-bureaucrats in the Jiangnan area, they were the first to encounter the contradiction between man and land, so they all started to propose birth control, thinking that it is best for a family to have two boys and one girl.

The literati and bureaucrats are not just talking about it. Many families in the south of the Yangtze River have started to take contraceptive measures after their second child.More children do not necessarily mean more blessings. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was a consensus among the people in Jiangnan. Because too many sons would divide the family property, the land that was originally enough for a family turned into a small piece of land that could not support themselves. The owner-peasants were reduced to tenants, and the tenants either became domestic slaves of the big family or went to perish.

Xu Guangqi once warned about the population of the clan, believing that the population doubling in 30 years would make the country unable to bear the burden of supporting the clan.Facing Li Zicheng's question, Jiang Chen and Zhang Jiayu immediately shook their heads and denied: "I am afraid that the land in the world cannot meet the needs of farmers. Even if all the land of the landlords is divided equally, it will only be stable for decades. Years later, as the population grows, there will still be gaps in the land.”

After glancing at a few people, Li Zicheng skipped the issue of agriculture and talked about the handicraft industry, "When it comes to the issue of handicraft industry, we must mention the construction and development of the city. Wherever the handicraft industry is concentrated, the population must be dense, even if it was not a city in the past. place, a new city will gradually form.

For example, Foshan Town in Guangdong, Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, Hankou Town in Huguang, Zhuxian Town in Henan... The above data show that the site required for handicraft production does not need to be large, as long as there are enough raw materials and labor, it can be produced all year round. Don't worry about the impact of climate factors.

Therefore, if we have enough handicraft workshops, then we can arrange the surplus rural labor force into handicraft production, so that they can support themselves through labor, which is also a way to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people. "

At this moment, the few people here have a general understanding of why Li Zicheng insisted on the thesis that labor creates wealth.They also immediately realized that Li Zicheng actually showed them two ways to solve the problem of food and clothing, one is to redistribute land, and the other is to develop the scale of handicraft industry.

Among the five, Jiang Chen, who had the deepest understanding of economic issues, first raised his own doubts after hearing Li Zicheng's intentions, "Since there is not enough land for distribution, it means that the grain produced by the land can no longer feed all the people. If there are too many people, even if the surplus population can be arranged for handicraft production, how much land can we use to plant those cotton, hemp and mulberry trees? If there is not enough land to produce raw materials, I am afraid that the handicraft industry will not be able to absorb so much labor, right? "

Zhang Nai also reacted, and asked Li Zicheng: "Your Majesty just said that small farmers can't provide much food. Now that so many people are engaged in handicrafts, who can sell the products produced by then?"

Li Zicheng glanced at the two, clapped his hands lightly and said, "These two questions are good questions, but this is exactly what the court needs to solve. If we can solve these two problems, doesn't it mean that we have solved the people's problems?" Is there a food and clothing problem?"

Jiang Chen and Zhang Nai: "..."

Just when they were at a loss, Zhang Jiayu and Gu Jiang said in unison: "Ah, Your Majesty is indeed far-sighted, I understand."

Jiang Chen, Zhang Nai, and Zhou Zhong looked at the two in confusion, not knowing what they were going to say.Li Zicheng also looked at the two of them, then smiled and said to them: "Since you understand, why don't you say it and let the three of them listen to it too."

Gu Jiang and Zhang Jiayu looked at each other, Gu Jiang nodded slightly to express his concession, so Zhang Jiayu said first: "Building a city requires a lot of handicrafts such as bricks, pipes, wood, and iron. Therefore, it is not necessary to increase too much in the countryside. Urban construction alone can provide a large number of jobs. In addition, the construction of water conservancy and roads, water conservancy can increase food production, and roads can reduce transportation costs. These are all investments that can pay off..."

Zhang Jiayu didn't finish all the answers, and gave it to Gu Jiang after half of it, and Gu Jiang immediately clicked on the question: "Explore overseas, and the development of overseas desert islands can not only provide a large amount of land, but also meet the needs of the handicraft industry. Raw materials for planting. And after the surplus labor force on the mainland migrates overseas, it can also greatly ease the conflict between people and land on the mainland..."

Jiang Chen, Zhang Nai, and Zhou Zhong immediately understood that these things were exactly what Li Zicheng had been promoting, and now as long as they were linked together, they would react.

Chapter 280 New Deal 95

After Li Zicheng clarified the issue of the route, he asked Zhang Jiayu, Jiang Chen, Zhou Zhong, and Gu Jiang to leave first. He left Zhang Nai to have lunch together, and by the way, he wanted to talk about sending troops to the north.

Standing on the steps of Pingshan Hall and watching the four of them leave, Li Zicheng asked Zhang Nai who was standing beside him, "Do you know who our enemy is?"

Zhang Nai, who has been deeply influenced by the propaganda of the Marshal's Mansion these days, replied without hesitation: "It's the Jian slave in the north."

Li Zicheng shook his head and said: "Wrong, you have to figure out who we are first. We are peasants who are oppressed by the court and the landlords and cannot survive. Therefore, our enemy can only be the landlord class. As for the slavery, it is just Taking advantage of the civil turmoil in China, I just want to break in to pick up cheap wild dogs, as long as we have a unified understanding, the wild dogs will have to flee back to their lairs."

Zhang Nai couldn't turn the corner, he subconsciously glanced at the backs of the four people who were walking out of the courtyard, and then asked cautiously: "But aren't they also landlords?"

Li Zicheng nodded and replied: "Yes, because we don't have the power to wipe out the entire landlord class, so we have to cooperate with some enlightened landlords, first kill the most stubborn landlords, and then reform the remaining willing landlords. The landlords who cooperate with us, so that the entire landlord class can be wiped out."

Zhang Nai thought about it for a few breaths and still couldn't understand, so he couldn't help asking again: "But, the land must have an owner after all. Even if we eliminate the current landlords, who should own their land? If it still belongs to one Owned by a small number of people, doesn’t that mean there are new landlords? Do you mean, Your Majesty, that you plan to confiscate the land as national property?”

Li Zicheng shook his head and said: "No, it is unrealistic to confiscate the land as state-owned. Although some literati believe that restoring the ancient well field system can curb the problem of land annexation, there is a problem here. Who owns the country? If the country belongs to a small Some people, so the so-called state ownership is still private ownership, and it cannot eliminate the landlord class.

Therefore, we must first define the landlord class before we can eliminate it.What is a landlord?He is the master of the land.Why is the person who owns the land the owner of the land and not the owner of the land?Because it can dominate that part of the population that depends on the land for survival.Simply put, the reason why we want to eliminate the landlord class is not because they own the land, but because they try to use the land to dominate the tenants on the land.

In other words, the landlord class we want to eliminate is those landowners who use the land to dominate the peasants, not the landowners who use the land for productive labor.Why eliminate the former but not the latter, because the former does not create wealth, they are just a group of gadflies that rely on the land to suck blood from laborers.

You and I are both peasants, so you should know what the landlords rely on to live. They don’t work to get enough food and clothing, and they don’t defend the border but get preferential treatment from the state. Provide farmers with any assistance to increase production capacity.However, it is such a group of people who keep saying that they are heirs of farming and reading, and want to let the people know their shame.

Under the oppression of these landlords, the peasants have almost no success. No matter how hard they work, the final result is that the landlords squeeze themselves even more.Therefore, farmers either work hard all their lives and die silently, like cattle and horses, or rise up and rebel like us, there is no other way.

For the landlord class, we rebellious peasants will never be their friends. When we have swords in our hands, they will be very docile, but as soon as we relax a little, they will try to unite all reactionary forces. The power destroys us.Because they cannot tolerate us being a role model for the oppressed peasants, let those peasants know that there is still a way to redeem themselves by resisting oppression.

Therefore, it is not only that we cannot tolerate the landlord class, but also the landlord class cannot tolerate us.If you try to speak morally to the landlord class, you will be guillotining yourself and the rebel brothers around you. This must never be forgotten. "

As a senior fruit fan, someone knows the nature of the landlord class better than anyone else, and thinks that fruit fans should stand with the landlord class, probably forgetting that Chang Kaishen cleaned up the left wing of the Kuomintang and the Democratic Party and the Anti-Japanese War in 412. The right wing of the Kuomintang and the Democratic Party was cleaned up during the war.For fruit fans, defending themselves is the most important goal, not defending the landlord class.

Someone attached to Li Zicheng was more sober than anyone else, and he advocated a peasant revolutionary war. At least he had a group of old brothers to support him. If he turned to the landlord class at this time, he would end up being opposed by both the old brothers and the landlord class.In the end, the one who had the last laugh must be Man Qing.

Now Zhang Nai finally understood Li Zicheng's intentions. In fact, he did not fully support Li Zicheng's series of policies after he left Beijing. Choose to obey.But this kind of obedience did not make him like those gentry, he always felt that everyone was not the same.

Today, since Li Zicheng confided his heart to him, Zhang Nai was naturally very excited, so he also boldly asked: "Since your majesty believes that the landlord class will be eliminated, why can't you support the idea of ​​distributing land to farmers?" Policies? Equaling the rich and the poor, isn’t this also unworkable?”

Li Zicheng pondered for a while and then asked him: "I asked you to read the history books before, which ones have you read?"

Zhang Nai fell silent immediately, and it took him a long time to explain himself: "I have to train soldiers, amend the regulations, and study the original geometry. I really don't have so much time to read other books. And those history books are all written in a very formal way." , After reading it for a long time, I didn’t understand what was written. I think His Majesty’s request to translate these classical Chinese into vernacular is right…”

Li Zicheng had to admit that Zhang Nai was already one of the generals in the rebel army who liked to learn more. Of course, this one's partiality was also quite serious, and his original interest in geometry was much greater than that of other generals.In fact, the reason why Dashun Times and Dashun Women's News became popular among citizens is inseparable from the use of a large number of vernacular writing.

Those classical Chinese with gorgeous rhetoric and full of allusions are too unfriendly to ordinary people.Basically, scholars need to translate it once before they can understand it. This is why scholars have the right to speak locally, because without their translation, the imperial court's announcements cannot be correctly conveyed to ordinary people.

In order to reduce the monopoly power of scholars over knowledge, the unification of Putonghua, the promotion of pinyin notation, and the implementation of vernacular writing are precisely to make it easier for the citizens to understand the imperial court’s notices, so that they no longer need to be interpreted by scholars.And these tasks allowed the Marshal's Mansion to absorb many low-level literati, thus greatly reducing the group of literati who confronted the Marshal's Mansion.

Thinking of this, Li Zicheng skipped the question of reading, and turned to Zhang Nai and said: "History and mathematics should be studied well. They are both tools for people to understand reality. For example, history, although the literati who wrote history fabricated many lies , but they still left a lot of facts that cannot be concealed.

Whether high or low, rich or poor.Almost every peasant rebel army in the last years of the dynasty would shout this slogan, but when these rebel troops made some achievements, the superiors were unwilling to implement it.Not to mention far away, let’s just talk about our Dashun Army. After entering Xi’an and Beijing, how many generals are still willing to eat at the same table with the soldiers?

Isn't the world of Great Harmony proposed by Confucius not a world of equal status?But his disciples were able to come up with an ethics of the three cardinal principles and five constant principles, which shows that the gap between ideal and reality is huge. "

Zhang Nai fell into silence, and said after a long time: "Then the way His Majesty just said at the meeting, can we really build a world of Datong?"

After thinking for a long time, Li Zicheng replied: "This question shouldn't be asked to me. I just think that going in this direction is closer to the Datong world. It's better for us to move forward than to stay where we are."

Zhang Nai was a little disappointed, but at the same time felt relieved, at least Li Zicheng didn't deceive himself, he could hear that Li Zicheng was telling the truth.So he said, "If Your Majesty thinks this road is correct, then I will follow His Majesty unswervingly. But I still have some doubts in my heart. Since those landlords can't be our friends, why would they join us?" We work together?"

Regarding this question, Li Zicheng replied flatly: "Because the landlord class is not unaware of the danger coming, such as Niu Jinxing, Gu Junen, Zhang Jiayu, etc., they also realize that if they do not make some changes, the peasants will not be able to survive. If the landowners are overthrown, they will rise up and overthrow the rule of the landlord class.

Such records abound in history books, from the Lvlin and Chimei Uprising at the end of the Western Han Dynasty to the Yellow Turban Uprising at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Huangchao Uprising at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and the Fangla Uprising at the end of the Song Dynasty. Revolts against the landlord class destroyed the local rule of the dynasty, and a new dynasty began.

Although these peasant uprisings were finally stolen by the landlord class, they at least destroyed a large number of old landlords and gave the peasants a new round of respite.Before the establishment of the new dynasty, no landlord would feel that they could survive until the establishment of the new dynasty, so they would try to do something to save themselves.

Therefore, these enlightened gentry who are willing to cooperate with us do not support us in essence, but maintain their own family business and status by supporting us.They pursued the same goal as those conservative gentry who tried to eliminate us to maintain our own family property and status, but chose a different path.

Since their purpose is to defend their own family business and status, it also means that they can rotate between supporting and opposing our positions at any time, which is why they are unreliable..."

Chapter 281 New Deal 96

Hearing Li Zicheng's words, Zhang Nai couldn't help but feel a little nervous. He said to Li Zicheng: "Since these gentry and landlords are not trustworthy, why does His Majesty entrust them with important tasks? And help them mediate the dispute for the throne? At this time, wouldn't it be more in our interest to let Ma Shiying's party continue to fight against Donglin's party?"

Li Zicheng sighed and said: "You're right, if Ma Shiying's party fights with gentlemen like Donglin and Fushe, at least in the short term, they won't have time to take care of Jiangbei's affairs.

However, the struggle between these two groups of people was not limited to the court, but spread to the local area. If we let them continue to fight, someone should lead troops to the Qing Dynasty's side in the capital.Daming has already lost the city of Beijing, and if even the city of Nanjing is breached by foreign troops, then the south will completely lose the control of the center.

This is a disaster for us, which means that not only can we not get manpower, material and financial support from the southern provinces, but we also have to send some troops across the river to quell local chaos.With our current strength, it is obviously impossible to suppress the enemies on both sides of the north and south at the same time.

Therefore, we need to intervene in the struggle between the Ma Shiying Party and the Donglin Party to temporarily ease the conflict between them, at least not to cause turmoil in the entire South before we defeat Jiannu.

As for the use of those enlightened gentry, it is because we do not have enough talents in our pockets.As long as they want to protect their family and status, they will still cooperate with us in a short time.What we should eliminate now are those gentry and landlords who refused to cooperate with us.As for the future, it depends on the development of the city. "

Just as Zhang Nai understood some things, he heard Li Zicheng talk about something new, so he asked Li Zicheng again: "What is the connection between this city and those enlightened gentry?"

Li Zicheng stretched out his hand and patted him on the shoulder, signaling to go to the small courtyard for dinner with him, while he said slowly to him: "As I said just now, nine out of ten of our country's population lives in rural areas, except for [-]% to [-]% of the population. Half of them are owner-peasants, and the rest are tenant farmers.

There are actually not many farmers like us who took the initiative to rebel. Most of them were forced to raise the banner of rebellion because they could not survive the natural disasters and were forced to pay taxes by the court.

It looks like we are standing with the peasants, but in fact we are only standing with the most oppressed part of the peasantry.Most of the self-cultivating farmers and tenants are not actually on our side. They are still subject to the authority of the local self-government system established by the local gentry and landlords.This means that if we cannot break the link between landlord and tenant, then the landlord can call the masses against us.

Even if we win over a group of enlightened gentry, what they want is not for us to lift their privileges, but for us to strengthen their privileges.Therefore, even if we rule the countryside through these enlightened gentry, the countryside will not be much different from before, it just satisfies the desire of these enlightened gentry.

Therefore, if we want to overthrow the landlord class, we must first find a class that can overthrow the landlord class.Politically, this class must oppose the privileges enjoyed by the landlord class, economically, it must oppose the self-sufficient manor economy, and culturally, it must oppose the hierarchical system of the three cardinal principles and five constant principles...

I thought about it for a long time, and thought that this class could only be born among urban handicraft workers.Because handicraft workers are most vulnerable to the influence of privileges, the gentry can order these handicraft workers to go to the frontier or other areas to serve the court with a single order, regardless of whether their lives will be destroyed as a result.

Economically, urban craftsmen make a living by manufacturing commodities exchanged in the market. The raw materials of these commodities come from the countryside, and the finished products are sold to the countryside in addition to the cities.If the countryside was a self-sufficient manor economy, it would be difficult for urban handicraftsmen not only to obtain raw materials, but also to sell their products to farmers.

Moreover, the rations of urban handicraftsmen must be supplied by the countryside. If the countryside cannot supply food to the cities at a stable price for a long time, it will be difficult for these urban handicraftsmen to maintain their livelihoods.Therefore, handicraft workers have a natural instinct to oppose the landlord class.

As for culture, the hierarchy of the three cardinal principles and the five constant principles imprisoned the production capacity of handicraftsmen. According to the hierarchy, many people could not wear clothes and accessories that did not conform to their identities. This was obviously not in the interests of handicraftsmen.

Therefore, when we support these urban handicraftsmen to clean up the evil forces in the city and to overthrow the local tyrants and evil gentry in the countryside, their support for the Marshal's Mansion is far more positive than that of the peasants.The peasants still looked forward and backward, for fear of being retaliated by the landlords afterwards, but the handicraftsmen in the cities were not worried, because they knew that these landlords could not hunt down and kill them in the city. "

Only then did Zhang Nai understand and said: "So, Your Majesty's expansion of Yangzhou City is to gain more handicraftsmen who support us. With the support of this city with a population of several 10, we can indeed make the surrounding villages It's under control. In this way, if the cities in the south of the Yangtze River can become our supporters, then the villages in the south of the Yangtze River will become insignificant."