New Shun 1730

It is not far from Shandong back to Beijing.

Even compared with the vast China with its vast territory and many latitudes, there is no change in species.

There are still willows, poplars, elms on the roadside, and occasionally there are some locust trees planted for famine prevention.

The road is also yellow, and the scenery along the way is the same.

Similar to the change of species caused by longitude and latitude, the reforms of Dashun in recent years are also a smooth change.

The magnitude of this change is like traveling in the era of horse-drawn carriages. Looking around, it seems that you can't feel that you are moving forward.

It is not like taking a plane in later generations. After a short nap, when you wake up, there may be knee-deep snow when you set off, and birds and flowers when you arrive.

Unless the external development has reached a certain level, such rapid changes may occur.

For most people in Beijing, there have been changes in recent years, but there are no "exclamations" or "surprises".

The use of steam engines and railway transportation in Jingxi Coal Mine is naturally a change.

But for the people of Beijing, burning coal itself would not make them exclaim like Marco Polo: Chinese people actually burn a kind of black stone.

Because, at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Yin Tinggao wrote a poem to lament the warmth of burning coal: The coal in the furnace is red, and the reeds and mushrooms on the earth bed feel the spring melting...

Let alone burning coal.

Just say that the strikes and strikes caused by coal mining are already common to the people of Beijing.

As early as the 31st year of Wanli in the previous dynasty, the "coal blacks" in Beijing had called for a break and posted notices, causing panic in Beijing. The entire city was out of coal and had no warmth in the winter, which caused a big disturbance and directly led to Emperor Wanli's replacement of the supervision of coal mines in Beijing.

In short, even though Dashun has made many reforms in recent years, it has also affected the lives of the people in all aspects.

Maybe if someone was dug from 500 years ago and suddenly came here, he would not adapt and would exclaim everywhere.

But the people who have been living on this land, facing this kind of change that is like slowly boiling warm water, did not feel too surprised, so much so that they exclaimed in admiration.

Instead, they moved forward without knowing that they were moving forward. Everyone took all this as a normal state of life and got used to the slightly changing life every day.

Of course, this is a macro perspective, or the perspective of those people who have not yet been involved in the change, or most of them have no direct interests in the change.

And if those who were involved in the change, their feelings over the past few decades would certainly be different.

For example, a simple railway from Mentougou to Beijing directly changed the fate of tens of thousands of people.

The camel bells in the west of Beijing gradually disappeared.

Those who raised camels, sold camels, pulled camels to carry coal, and those small shop owners who opened camel shops in the west of Beijing or opened cart shops at night for the camel drivers to rest...

The woodcutters in Nanyuan planted apples with the subsidies from the court. Because the firewood in Nanyuan could not be sold, the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people living in such a large royal garden were also completely changed.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of change.

Every change will bring many interests and losses.

But the pace of the times is like this: little by little, the middle class, the handicraftsmen, and the citizens who can survive with handicrafts and have small industries are forced step by step into the proletariat who can only sell labor.

However, handicraftsmen are like potatoes in the field, they are scattered, independent, and they can't be naturally disciplined and organized like people working in factories.

So Liu Yu's reforms nibbled them little by little, eliminating one industry after another, trying not to cause large-scale resistance. Even if there is resistance, they will be suppressed in batches by relying on the natural dispersion of handicraftsmen.

And for most people in the era, this slow elimination is not all of life.

Most people still sleep on earthen beds, burn coal, eat steamed buns, put salt in dishes, eat pears in autumn and gnaw radishes in winter.

It is nothing more than that if there are apples for sale in the market today, they are eaten fresh in the first year, and they will become a common item in the future; tomorrow a batch of carmine dyed cloth from the other side of the ocean arrives, and the young wives are grumbling about buying some, and they don’t care where the other side of the ocean is; the day after tomorrow, they will no longer use tinder to blow the fire gun but use matches. After a long time, even swallowing match heads to commit suicide has become commonplace, and the focus is no longer on the match heads but on suicide itself.

Life is changing a little bit, but it is definitely not like China in later generations. An old man in his seventies or eighties may have experienced three hundred years of changes in the normal development of the world in his life - when he was a child, he had never heard of electric lights and had to carry the core of sorghum stalks everywhere to borrow fire; when he is old, he can use a mobile phone and slightly fiddle with online TV.

And people are very adaptable. A person who has never heard of electric lights when he was a child, in middle age, even Bethune is Canadian and electric wires cannot be extinguished with water as part of life.

Moreover, the seemingly drastic changes of Dashun at this time actually brought very slow changes to life.

For the common people, this is the case.

Because the things that the common people can touch must be mass-produced. And the things that cannot be mass-produced are difficult for the common people to touch.

But for the rulers in the Dashun court, the changes in life they felt were much more drastic than those of the common people.

After all, there are some things that, in this day and age, can be made by rubbing them by hand regardless of the cost.

Regardless of whether the so-called "fantastic skills and tricks" idea is mainstream or not. Liu Yudu is trying to use technology to get rid of the impression of "fantastic skills and ingenuity".

As a result, many new things that were made by hand regardless of cost and could not be mass-produced at this time continued to flow into the palace as "tributes".

This time, the emperor summoned Liu Yu, who had returned to Beijing, and chose a building in Xiyuan.

There is nothing unusual about this building itself.

But within a few hundred steps of this building, there were many things that shouldn't be there at this time.

Something that is enough to completely shatter the stereotype of "strange skills and tricks".

The emperor is old.

The accompanying attendants should carefully support him to prevent the old emperor from falling on the path near the building in Xiyuan.

Except for the emperor, Liu Yu, and his attendants, there was no one else around him.

On both sides of the path the emperor walked, there were wheat fields. This wheat field was planted by the emperor himself after offering sacrifices to the Xiannong Altar to encourage plowing... Of course, this kind of self-planting was mainly a formality, symbolically holding a plowshare. On dozens of acres of land, the emperor might That’s just one or two acres of support symbolically.

There is a lot of water in Xiyuan. If the emperor cultivates it himself and there is no shortage of people, it will be very simple to dig a canal to divert the water.

But far away from the wheat field, like taking off your pants and farting, there was a coal-fired and steam-powered water pump.

It has not been started at this time, but obviously it should have been used to deliver water to this wheat field that actually only requires digging a canal and no pump at all.

Next to the building farther away, you can vaguely see several tall wooden poles coated with asphalt to prevent insects and corrosion, with some porcelain gourds hanging on them and some long threads wrapped around them.

It was Liu Yu's "tribute", a set of gadgets that were purely made by handicraftsmen regardless of cost and could not be mass-produced industrially at this time. They were used to replace oil lamps and candles.

In addition, there are many similar things.

The old emperor walked forward, and Liu Yu followed suit.

The old emperor did not discuss the Yellow River with Liu Yu, nor did he discuss whether Liu Yu would recommend candidates to be sent to repair the Yellow River after his return this time.

But after walking silently for a while, the emperor said slowly: "This farmland is cultivated by me myself. The wheat fields are growing very well, and a lot of saltpeter, struvite, and bone phosphorus powder have been sprinkled... Last year, this time The yield per acre is more than 800 kilograms."

"Your Majesty was in Jinan at that time. I invited all the ministers to come and see me, and I weighed myself on the spot. All the ministers were shocked. They either said good luck, composed poems to congratulate me, or said that my merits and deeds were worthy of God..."

As he spoke, the emperor pointed to the steam pump in the distance.

"Compared to a waterwheel, this thing does not require much manpower. It works day and night, and is beyond the reach of manpower. There is no shortage of water in Xiyuan, nor is there a shortage of manpower, but I ordered them to use this thing to carry water."

After saying that, the old emperor stopped, looked around, and said slowly: "I have been coming here often in the past few years."

"Do you know that when I come here, I always think about an ancient poem? I wonder if I can guess it?"

Liu Yu didn't say he couldn't guess it, nor did he try to guess it. Instead, he used a poem that everyone knew.

"It's noon on the day of hoeing, and the sweat is dripping from the soil. Who knows that every grain of food on the plate is hard work."

When the emperor heard Liu Yu recite this poem, he couldn't help laughing.

After a long time, the laughter stopped, but another poem that didn't seem to match was recited.

"Weeds and flowers beside the Suzaku Bridge, the sun sets at the entrance of Wuyi Alley."

"In the old days, the king's swallows flew in front of the hall and flew into the homes of ordinary people."

After reading it, he looked at the steam pump in the distance, the wheat fields that were growing well with saltpeter and other natural fertilizers, and the looming wire poles in the distance, and repeated the last sentence.

"In the old days, the king of Xietang had a swallow flying into the homes of ordinary people..."

"If this can be done, the world will be at peace. In the past, we didn't know where we were going, but today we know where we are going."

Liu Yu certainly understood what the emperor meant.

He also looked around. Regarding the poem the emperor read, what he was thinking was, "Today, do you know where to go? You know a hammer. Do you know what productivity and production relations are? Do you think industrialization makes these things possible?" Is it just a technical problem to fly into the homes of ordinary people? Or do you think that industrialization in your dim perception means building a railway, building a factory, and digging a coal mine? "

Thinking like this in his heart, he said: "Your Majesty is worried about the people of the country..."

After a very normal conversation, Liu Yu added: "If these things can really fly into ordinary people's homes..."

“Since ancient times, the ideal world has been Datong.”

“If we cannot achieve great harmony, we must seek to be well-off.”

"Confucius said: The journey of the great road is also about the heroes of the three generations. Qiu Wei has caught them, but they have ambitions. The journey of the great road is that the world is public, selecting the virtuous and capable, trusting and cultivating harmony. Therefore, friends do not only kiss their relatives, but also their relatives. The only son has a son, so that the old can have their end, the strong can be useful, the young can grow, the lonely, the weak and the sick can all be supported, the male can have a share, and the female can have a home. "The force of evil does not come from the body, and it does not have to be for oneself. This is why people seek to be closed but not prosper, and thieves are not committed. Therefore, it is called Datong."

"Also said: Now that the great road is hidden, the world is a home, everyone has relatives, every son has his own son, goods and strength are his own, the great people in the world regard it as etiquette, the territory, valleys and ponds are regarded as solid, etiquette and righteousness are regarded as discipline, and the ruler and ministers are upright. To be loyal to father and son, to be harmonious to brothers, to be harmonious to husband and wife, to establish institutions, to establish the fields, to be wise and brave, to be self-reliant...this is called a well-off society."

"In a world of great harmony, we need to travel the great road."

"I don't understand the Dao, and I dare not even have a glimpse of it."

"Therefore, all my actions are based on the premise that the Great Dao has been hidden. Therefore, I dare not ask for great harmony. And if it can really be as Your Majesty said, these things can fly into the homes of ordinary people, and it is not an exaggeration to call them well-off."

The emperor nodded and said: "I have also read the memorial you sent before. As you said, the per capita land in Shandong is now only three acres. Even if the wind and rain are smooth, there is no rain, no disaster, and there is no labor and tax. In this way, At that time, the yield per mu was more than 100 jin, which is only 400 jin per person. "

"We don't mention whether it is feasible to equalize the land and limit the land. Let's just assume that this is the case. This food will be enough to eat. The rest is the inequality of wealth, disasters, floods and droughts, corrupt officials, land annexation, etc., and the family has no family. If there is a slight disturbance in the food storage, it will be a big mess. "

"In recent years, saltpeter from India and southern fusang have also flowed in, and some families have begun to use it to fertilize their fields. In addition, there are many grain-producing areas in Guangdong and Southeast Asia. As long as transportation is convenient, it will be a relief, and it will be stable for the time being. "

"It's just that nowadays, whether the saltpeter from this fertile field or the coal evaporated by pumping water... are all expensive, ordinary people may not be able to afford it. In addition, the food is cheap nowadays, and few grain farmers use this fertile field."

"Do you think these things can finally enter the homes of ordinary people?"

"Besides, I think that if there are more and more of these things, the rich will make more use of them if they have money and strength; the poor will find it difficult to use them if they have no money and little strength. As time goes by, won't it mean that the poor will become poorer and the rich will become richer?"

"Nowadays, in the imperial court, land is equalized and limited, and even the four registrations are re-established. Only farmers who have land and those who are registered as businessmen are not allowed to buy land. It is said more and more."

"Businessmen make profits very quickly. If they merge and buy land, it will be difficult to control. Does Aiqing have any strategy for this matter?"

The emperor glanced at Liu Yu, sighed and said, "Even if you can't do it right away, you can still do it slowly."

"Now I have some doubts in my heart. I wonder if there is a way to have both worlds?"

"Every time I look at this field in the past few years, I think that if this kind of method can really be used all over the world and fly into the homes of ordinary people, why should the world worry about lack of food and civil uprising? Even if there is a drought, people can use less people to pump water for irrigation. In this way, the world will be prosperous and provide more relief, which can also be said to be well-off."

"But in the same way, if the land is limited and the land is equalized; or even if only farmers have land, four registrations are established, and the household status cannot be crossed...it seems stable, but it cannot be called industrial development, and it seems difficult to allow these things to fly into ordinary people Home."

"With such a dilemma, is there a way to have both ends of the world? It can stabilize small farmers, limit farmland and suppress mergers, but it does not hinder industrial development, and even private fields can be used with nitrate fertilizers and water pumps?"

Liu Yu thought to himself, of course there is. But this is not something that your Dashun Dynasty can do. However, Dashun has this foundation. At the very least, the population is sufficient, so that it will not be like the situation in European countries, where they can only tend to a certain industry, and it is not enough to do this or that person; it is not enough to do that.

However, when the emperor asked this question now, Liu Yu could only reply: "Your Majesty, are you treating the symptoms? Treating the root cause?"