Chapter 121 Anger
Master Feixuan happily changed his posture and used his other buttock to press the sedan chair. In general, all the praises of Yan Donglou in the Heavenly Book really hit the nail on the head, making him feel refreshed, clear-minded, and indescribably happy and contented - unlike ordinary officials, the reason why Yan Fenyi and his son were able to rise so quickly was entirely due to the emperor's willful promotion; and because of this, the more fully and amazingly Yan Donglou's talents were displayed, the more it proved that he, Feixuan Zhenjun, had a unique vision and foresight, and was by no means comparable to the short-sighted ministers. Such indirect flattery and pandering are more effective than direct flattery, and will surely make the True Lord feel at ease both physically and mentally.
However, while feeling happy and relaxed, Zhenjun still had a slight doubt - if what the Heavenly Book said was correct, then Yan Donglou had only worked in Japan for nine years despite using all his tricks; but with his own style of using everything he could to the death, there was no way he would let go of such a great treasure?
Yan Fenyi was a hero of his generation. At the age of seventy, he was still able to dominate the political arena and remain standing. He was truly a chosen white glove by God who was not even protected by the power of elixir. Could it be that Yan Donglou was unlike his father and had such a short life?
It is always difficult to find a good tool, so the emperor couldn't help but hesitate, wondering whether to adjust the duties in the future and try to extend Yan Donglou's period of use. But fortunately, the Book of Heaven spoke in time, dispelling this unnecessary pity:
[Of course, we list these numbers not to boast about Yan Donglou's great achievements in Japan; in fact, these nine years in Japan were only the starting point of Yan's brilliant career. After five years of studying with Ru Wang, the Sino-Spanish War of Luzon broke out, and Yan Donglou took on the responsibility of Spanish indemnity affairs; in the sixth year, the Sino-Dutch naval war broke out, and Yan Donglou took on the responsibility of Dutch indemnity affairs; by the ninth year when he resigned from his post in Japan, he was already in charge of the indemnity affairs of the five countries of Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, England and France, becoming the de facto foreign minister.
——In fact, the reason why Yan Donglou resigned from his post in Japan was not because of work problems; rather, the central government considered the overall situation and believed that the de facto foreign minister was still receiving a salary for handling Japanese affairs, which would elevate Japan's status too much and damage the pattern of international relations; and only by commanding the reparations affairs of various countries as the foreign minister could Yan's expertise be brought into play.
Therefore, we can see the astonishing growth of fiscal revenue after the Jiayin Reform was launched - although the official history books of the Da'an court insisted that its skyrocketing revenue was purely due to the great success of foreign trade; but any historian with a little common sense understands that even if the iron furnaces in coastal textile factories were making smoke, they could not produce tens of millions of taels of silver a year; Regarding this incredible growth, the documents provided by the Bank of England are more credible. It directly pointed out: In the five years after Yan Donglou took office as Foreign Minister alone, the net income plundered by the court from various indemnity treaties was as high as more than 45 million taels, accounting for half of the court's income at the time.
Therefore, it is no wonder that the cabinet at that time was called the "Indemnity Cabinet." Agricultural taxes, land taxes, and commercial taxes all have their own expenses; only the income from indemnity is windfall, which is completely controlled by the emperor and the cabinet. Where there is money, there is power. As the share of finances directly controlled by the central reform faction expanded rapidly, the power of the emperor and the cabinet also expanded rapidly, eventually reaching a peak that was unimaginable during the Da'an period.
Of course, the "power" here does not refer to the so-called tactics of manipulating people's hearts in cunning and deceitful schemes. If we talk about how to have the power of life and death and indulge desires in a monarchy, then the emperors of Da'an were all quite proficient in this; but the irony of the feudal era lies here - if the imperial power wants to kill or torture someone, it can basically do whatever it wants without any restrictions; but if the imperial power really wants to get something done, it immediately becomes difficult and often fails to accomplish anything.
Regarding this point, the emperors of the Da'an Dynasty (especially Baizong) should have a deep understanding of it.
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As one of the emperors of Da'an, Master Feixuan snorted expressionlessly. He used to be full of ambition, but now he is paralyzed in bed. Zhenjun has been entangled with officials in the court and the country for so long, so he understands this truth very well. When Zhenjun was still quite human, he had tried to take some positive and constructive actions. But all the efforts and hard work were eventually wasted in the greasy, old and slippery state machine of the court; so the ambition was worn out and became what it is now. Listening to it now, I can’t help but be touched.
However, this touch was fleeting, and what really confused the emperor was the last sentence:
"Bao Zong"? Which unfilial descendant with water in his brain could have given the late emperor such a weird temple name?
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But after the Jiayin Reform, everything changed.
Of course, this does not mean that the host of the Jiayin Reform had any unique personal charm. In fact, except for a few people like Zhang and Hai, Mu Qi, Yan Donglou and others had a very bad reputation among the scholars at that time (thinking about their style in unofficial history, you probably can hardly expect any good reviews). Facts have also proved that the implementation of policies depends not on personal charm but on money.
Since the third year of the Jiayin Reform, due to the surge in indemnity income and sufficient food after the unblocking of sea routes, the cabinet exempted 50% of taxes in the Nine Border Areas and Shaanxi and Gansu, waived the obligation of the provinces south of the Yangtze River to pay grain, and repaid the taxes owed for more than ten years to the military households stationed in Yunnan and Guizhou; since the fifth year, the court entered a stage that later generations called "prodigal son finances": the provinces paid a total of more than 17.52 million taels of taxes that year, while the investment salaries and disaster relief funds allocated by the court to various places amounted to 29 million taels; the national treasury overspent more than 11 million taels, all of which was allocated by indemnities and maritime trade. After the ninth year, things entered an incredible stage - more than 70% of the provinces' finances relied on central appropriations, and their own tax revenues were less than 30%!
At this point, the "great changes unseen in five thousand years" have finally taken shape: in all dynasties, the local governments have supported the central government, but now the situation has changed and the central government has turned to support the local governments; in the past, the local governments controlled the financial resources and had the ability to bargain with the central government, but now the central government holds the blood transfusion tubes of all provinces. Who can resist the will of the cabinet?
Politics is finance, and finance is politics; the economic base determines the superstructure, and whoever controls the purse controls everything. When the central government's financial resources expanded unprecedentedly, the cabinet's will was no longer subject to any constraints. At this point, the ideal that centralists have longed for for two thousand years, from Shang Yang, Qin Shihuang to Emperor Gaozu of Da'an, Zhu Chongba, has finally come true - there will be no regional distinctions, no factionalism, the central government can allocate all resources at will, and with the help of a unified system, it can bring out incredible advantages; with 60 million people united as one, who in the world can be the opponent of Middle-earth?
It is for this reason that the Jiayin Reform is called the beginning of China's modernization and a faint echo of the new era. After the Song and Yuan dynasties, imperial power did not extend below the county level. The feudal era was closed and conservative, and the court's policies were 100% effective, but perhaps only 10% or 20% were implemented in practice. After opening up the connection from the central government to the local governments, the cabinet tried its best, but could barely implement the central government's will by 30% to 40% - don't underestimate this mere 10% or 20% progress. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The reason why Central Plains was able to catch up was precisely because of this 10% or 20% advantage in each reform.
The improvement of execution will optimize the speed of the entire system, not just the financial aspect. In fact, when the reform is fully implemented, the new system has already begun to take shape...
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[The following contains historically sensitive content and is not suitable for broadcast]
Zhenjun smacked his lips and drew a line impatiently, but saw that the big red reminder was still hanging in the air stubbornly, with no intention of disappearing, which greatly disappointed him. I don't know what the standards of this heavenly book are. It always blocks some so-called "sensitive content" for unknown reasons and refuses to play it. No matter how hard I try, it is useless.
——What is there that even Master Feixuan and Master Wanshou cannot see? That's too polite!
Fortunately, everyone was lying on the ground on all sides and no one dared to look up to see what the emperor was thinking; so the emperor could show off his expression to his heart's content and vent his unhappiness about being concealed.
Of course, this unhappiness only lasted for a moment. As an emperor who was about to become rich, powerful and immortal, Zhenjun remained fully magnanimous. I don't care about this little sensitive content. He flipped through several pages and finally saw the content that was not blocked.
[…One of the essentials of modernization is to break the closed and conservative natural economy in various places and establish a unified national market. And in the Jiayin Reform, this difficult process was achieved in a somewhat strange form - the natural economy certainly resists external forces, but it absolutely cannot refuse the pure silver; under the feudal system, local forces were conservative and stubborn, firmly grasping all local financial resources; but no matter how much financial resources there were, could they compare with the central government's allocation of millions of taels of silver?
If there is resistance, silver will sweep it; if the resistance increases, silver will increase. The whole idea of the Jiayin Reform is just this.
So, history is so weird that it is beyond words. Since Emperor Gaozu of Da'an, Zhu Chongba, successive famous officials have worked day and night, trying every trick in the book to compete with local forces for authority; and in the end, this central-local contradiction that lasted for hundreds of years was resolved after Jiayin and was no longer worth mentioning. Such a glorious and magnificent achievement did not come from political clarity or the transformation of human nature, but was purely because of money. The officialdom during the Jiayin Reform was still corrupt due to hundreds of years of corruption. However, the money poured into the court was too much, so much that it was like a flood, beyond imagination and experience. Even after the officials in the court and the public had taken advantage of the situation, there was still enough money left for reliable people to do practical things.
Take every penny and use it like dirt and sand, that's all.
Of course, any politician with a little common sense can see the huge hidden dangers in this model: the success of the reform depends purely on an unimaginably huge cash flow; once the cash flow is slightly blocked, the reform will immediately encounter setbacks. Therefore, after the reformists came up with the silver sweep tactic, although the conservatives were severely suppressed, they still had great hope in their hearts. They privately called the reformists "Sang Hongyang" and the emperor "Han Wu", believing that this strategy of draining the pond to catch fish would never last long; as long as the financial resources were cut off, it would be a good opportunity to turn the tables.
It should be said that this speculation is actually quite reasonable. Due to the reformists' extremely efficient spending, Japan was emptied in less than nine years, "like a rotten orange after the juice has been squeezed" (an exquisite metaphor from the Bank of England); the family was ruined in five years and the country was destroyed in nine years. The speed was beyond common sense and could not be tolerated by a normal system - but the question is, is there only one orange in the world?
That’s right, this is the fundamental reason why the cabinet started to take actions everywhere after the reform was going well. When Japan is squeezed dry, it will be replaced by Spain. When Spain is squeezed dry, it will be replaced by the Netherlands. When the Netherlands is squeezed dry, it will be replaced by France. It is necessary to use the brand-new technology developed by Yan Donglou to continuously squeeze and absorb the juice, in order to extract enough and rich juice to supply the cabinet's extravagant reform policies.
This absorption is not even conscious. Mu Qi had defended the court on many occasions, saying that he and his colleagues "have always loved peace" and "had no intention of war." Each time, he would be met with laughter and even gave rise to the saying "the peace promised by Mu Qi." However, judging from the archives of the cabinet at the time, Mu Qi's defense was not completely false. If the Sino-Japanese War and the Sino-Portuguese War were clearly influenced by the national will, then the Sino-Spanish Luzon War and others had basically no cabinet instructions. It was purely because merchants competed for the market, purchased weapons and fought each other, and only after the matter became a big deal was it reported to the cabinet. The cabinet was of course very dissatisfied with such a self-directed approach. At first, it even sternly refused and tried to keep its distance. It was not until the situation continued to develop that it was forced to take over the deal.
As for why the cabinet had to take over... let me put it this way, the batch of goods involved in the Battle of Luzon included a total investment of 8.3 million taels of silver from the then emperor and the head of the Imperial Household Department. If the cabinet did not step in to turn the tables, the imperial palace would have had nothing to lose this year.
So you're saying there's a way? There is actually no way. Mu Qi may be peace-loving, and the cabinet may also be peace-loving. But in the later stages of the reform, the profits were already tens of millions of taels each year, and the emperor, eunuchs and prominent officials invested millions or even tens of millions of taels in coastal factories. Who can say no to such power?
Once the gears of modernization start turning, no one can stop them, not even its creator.
Off topic: During the Sino-Luzon naval battle, the cabinet successfully rescued the goods of Chinese merchants and earned huge profits for the emperor. But the war also brought unexpected results: quite a number of frustrated conservatives finally broke down completely in this war; perhaps because they felt that they would never see the reformists fail in their lifetime, or because they lost everything they invested in Spanish government bonds; these people actually fled overseas in groups, barely settled down with the help of the Dutch, and then wrote a large number of rumors to insult the emperor and cabinet officials, which still have an impact today.
However, the records about the emperor being "obsessed with alchemy and behaving incoherently", "old but not dead and mean and ungrateful", Mu Qi being "crazy and talking nonsense", and Yan Donglou being "greedy and mean" are probably not rumors...
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The emperor took a deep breath and suddenly sat up from the sedan chair!
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