Li Liang forcibly suppressed his anger, "Just do what Lord Leader said!" In the future, these major policies will be based on the advice of the leading politicians! ”

"Yes, Your Highness." Gu Hong and all the ministers of the two classes agreed.

Through this incident, not only did Wei Bao gain great benefits, but the internal structure of the Joseon court also underwent a major transformation.

Gu Hong and Shen Jingyu and other imperial relatives lost their strength, and the conservative and dignified Li Yuanyi was reused.

This incident hastened the descent of the Korean court into the abyss of appeasement.

The kings and ministers of North Korea were subdued by Wei Bao, and every time they got Wei Bao, they turned back and were even more brutally attacked, and they were at peace with Wei Bao, and they were at peace.

After a few rounds, the king and ministers of North Korea, the court of North Korea, were like a bull, subdued by the fight, tired of fighting, and in front of President Wei, they were like a kitten.

It was President Wei's strategy to purge the landlord class in the local forces and replace it with the sole landlord, and the colony only developed agriculture and extractive industries, so as to squeeze the value and labor of the colony to the maximum.

The process of industrialization is always achieved through the squeezing of agriculture, this process, if it is squeezed from within, the life of the common people will be very sad, and the social contradictions will be aggravated.

However, this is very demanding for managers, and in this way, for weak Tiandihui territory like Weijiazhuang, Liaonan, Gyeonggi Province and Hwanghae-do, it is completely from a blank sheet of paper, and the risk is too great, and if one is not careful, it will collapse completely.

However, President Wei likes to take risks, and the road of expansion in the process of full colonization is President Wei's choice, no matter how difficult it is, President Wei will not abandon a common man, and the path he chooses, President Wei will finish it on his knees!

President Wei implements government capitalism, which belongs to a relatively moderate system, and now it still belongs to the early stage of the establishment of the Heaven and Earth Society, and everything is still in the exploration stage, and President Wei's foreign policy is no longer hegemonic, and it is even more relaxed internally.

The areas under the rule of the Tiandihui unified Mandarin, unified simplified characters, and popularized Mandarin, which was also the official language of the Ming and Qing dynasties, popularized simplified characters, and unified the unit of measurement of European standards.

Vigorously developing agriculture is only compared with industrialized cities, agriculture is mainly used to improve livelihood, mainly breeding and growing vegetables.

It also developed animal husbandry around agriculture, and established the North Korean Breeding Group, the Liaoning South Breeding Group, and the Weijiazhuang Breeding Group.

The three farming groups are active in the production of milk, milk powder, planting technology, tobacco cultivation.

President Wei even wanted to make canned food and instant noodles.

The technology of milk powder, canned food, and instant noodles is very simple, but packaging technology is needed, and President Wei is only making suggestions at this time, and he must first improve the technology of the plastic industry before he can do it.

Bulk products cannot meet the needs of a large number of industrialization.

After all, he knows best what these things look like, and he can't explain them clearly in a sentence or two.

Although President Wei is running around all day long, the operation of the entire area under the rule of the Heaven and Earth Society is firmly in the hands of President Wei.

When Li Yuanyi took Li Liang's mission to find Wei Bao, Wei Bao had already left Incheon with the President's Guard, the President's Secretariat, and the General Administration of the Statistics Department of the Heaven and Earth Society and went to Weijiazhuang.

Therefore, Li Yuanyi could only send representatives to repeatedly consult with Li Shi on the issue of paying taxes and grass every month.

Li Shi, as President Wei's representative, has a mild attitude, but Li Shi can't call the shots at all, and he will definitely not give Li Yuanyi any practical benefits.

"Li Shi, you used to make a big deal in the incident of Your Highness Guanghai Jun Li Hui anyway, although the court was unfair to you, but you rebelled against the court, this is something that your subordinates should never do! Now that you have invested in the Heaven and Earth Society, you must not forget that you are a North Korean! Gyeonggi Province and Hwanghaedo Province have not paid taxes for ten years, what does it mean, you should know better than anyone else! Gyeonggi Province and Hwanghae-do Province together pay more taxes than the other six provinces of Korea combined. Once the taxes of Gyeonggi Province and Hwanghae Province are lost, it will be a problem for the imperial court to suppress the rebels in various places, and even to provide relief to the poor people and support the officials of the DPRK and China. ”

"I know all of this, but what can I do?" Li Shi had a helpless expression: "The order was given by the president, and I am not stupid." In addition, although the president has given me the power to deal with the government affairs of Gyeonggi Province and Hwanghae-do, where did I do such a big thing as paying taxes in Gyeonggi-do and Hwanghae-do? ”

Li Yuanyi was a little anxious, secretly thinking that he couldn't chase Wei Bao to Daming, right?

"Help, you must have a way, don't you ask Master Taifu if you encounter something important?" Li Yuanyi said.

"If you want to ask for instructions, I can convey the original meaning of the consul to the president, otherwise, I can send a letter to the councilor, and the next time I have something to find the president, I can also have someone bring it over and hand it to the president." Li Shidao.

Li Yuanyi frowned, he was not very interested, Li Yuanyi has been an official all his life, and he understands these Tai Chi tricks the most, and many things are dragged and lost.

"Do you know when Master Taifu will return to North Korea?" Li Yuanyi asked.

"I really don't know, the president's itinerary, where do our people know it?" Li Shidao.

"Do you know where Master Taifu went? Da Ming is so big, I can't look for Master Taifu everywhere, is there a specific place to go? Li Yuanyi asked.

"Where do I know where to go? If I send someone to deliver the message, I still have to go through the Statistics Office of our Heaven and Earth Society, which is a separate system, so how dare our local people ask about the Statistics Office? Li Shi looked very sincere: "It's okay to say this, I really don't know." ”

Li Yuanyi sighed deeply, very painful, knowing that it was useless to talk to Li Shi more, so he only stayed for a while and left.

At this time, President Wei was already on the ocean.

"Didn't you say you had to wait two more days to see how it went? Didn't you say you had to wait until it was stable before leaving? According to the information from the Statistics Bureau, Li Liang sent Li Yuanyi to negotiate with us, and wanted to change the tax exemption of Gyeonggi Province and Hwanghae Province for ten years to one year, so that we can leave? Wu Xuexia asked puzzledly: "This news shows that Li Wei is not convinced, and he wants to trouble us." ”

Wei Bao smiled: "Sometimes you are very smart, sometimes you are silly and cute. ”

"What's wrong?" Wu Xuexia blinked her eyes silly and cutely, and she was not unhappy.

"Li Liang sent people to talk to us, instead of directly ordering troops and horses to fight with us, which in itself shows the attitude of the North Koreans, isn't this a stable situation?" Wei Bao said with a smile: "They want to talk to Li Shi first, and then Li Shi will convey it, so tossing back and forth, there will be no result in talking about one thing for a few years, what else is there to worry about?" ”

Wu Xuexia nodded thoughtfully.

Princess Zhenming glanced at Wei Bao and didn't say anything.

Princess Zhenming is no longer surprised by Wei Bao's ability to judge these things, Wei Bao, who is several years younger than her, is a naturally powerful person in the eyes of Princess Zhenming.

She wasn't very worried about whether the Korean court's taxes had been reduced by half and could be maintained, anyway, as long as Princess Zhenming didn't see that heaven and earth would fight with the Korean official army, she was already very satisfied.

Wang Qiuya obviously didn't pay attention to the relationship with the North Koreans, and she suddenly interjected and asked, "President, should we stay in southern Liaoning for a while, or go back to Weijiazhuang directly?" ”

"Going back to Weijiazhuang directly, Liaonan is the same as Gyeonggi Province and Hwanghae Province in North Korea, it takes time to change slowly, and it is not a matter of overnight governance little by little." Wei Bao replied: "As long as Jiannu doesn't come to work hard, when the spring flowers bloom, the ancient Great Wall of southern Liaoning has been closed, and I am not afraid that Jiannu will come to attack." ”

Wang Qiuya snorted and smiled: "I also want to go back to Weijiazhuang earlier, I haven't seen Xiaolin and Rui'er for a while, so I miss them." ”

"We'll see you soon." Wei Bao said: "There is another thing more important than meeting Fan Xiaolin and Xu Rui. ”

"Does the president mean the grain merchants who should still be in Shanhaiguan now?" Wu Xuexia said.

Wei Bao smiled slightly: "Yes! ”

"These people know that we have a large number of people in Liaodong, and the president keeps asking people to buy grain at high prices, so they have concentrated the main grain merchants in North and South Zhili in Shanhaiguan. Originally, according to reason, the amount of grain was too large, far exceeding the amount of material that Liaoxi could digest, and the price would drop somewhat. Those grain merchants are also waiting to see the outcome of our battle against Jiannu. Now that Jiannu has been driven out of southern Liaoning by us, all the news is towards us, unless they pull all the grain back to the Guannei, otherwise they must sell it at a reduced price. So, don't be in a hurry. Wu Xuexia said: "By the way, there is another point, our Tiandihui branches in Beizhili and Shandong are not also buying a large amount of private grain?" Whether or not we can gather enough food ourselves, it will always put a lot of pressure on those grain merchants. If they were to bring grain back to the customs, they would lose even more money if they came and went. ”

"That's right, that's what I said. But if the grain merchants of South and North Zhili deliberately unite and can't get along with us, how can we deal with it? Wei Bao asked.

"It won't be, will it? So many conditions are in our favor, and they will pull all the grain back to the Guannai? I didn't earn any money, and I paid the travel expenses at both ends, who would be so stupid? Wu Xuexia said.

"It's not stupid." Wei Bao smiled: "This is unity!" They are trying to force us to buy their food, and at a high price, through a joint run. Now the building materials industry is becoming more and more cunning. Not to mention these grain merchants. ”

"What then? What to do with them? Wu Xuexia asked anxiously.

"Let's go back and talk about it, I haven't thought about it for the time being." Wei Bao smiled.

A few months ago, Weijiazhuang had a bumper autumn harvest.

However, compared with the new population of 4 million, it is a drop in the bucket, and Weijiazhuang's territory is small, and it is only in the initial reclamation stage, so it will not receive much grain in a short period of time.

In a place like southern Liaoning, it has been barren for a long time, and most of it is just reclaimed wasteland, not to mention this year, even when it comes to the autumn harvest next year, it is not easy to maintain self-sufficiency.

If it weren't for the seizure of the industries of the Korean ministers and the big landowners in Gyeonggi and Hwanghae provinces, and the seizure of a lot of grain, the four million Liao people in southern Liaoning would not be satisfied with the most basic food for one meal a day.

However, these are not the root causes.

In order to prevent food shortages in their hands, it is necessary to ensure that Liaonan and Gyeonggi and Hwanghae provinces in Korea can be self-sufficient.

At the very least, we will have to wait for more than half a year until this year's autumn harvest.

But how will we spend most of the year? President Wei's food on hand is about to run out again.

President Wei seems to be facing huge food pressure every day since he was reborn, and he has never improved for a day.

There is no food left at home, and I feel suffocated when I walk.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the population was not only 100 million, let alone more than 60 million in household registration. Some studies believe that the population reached 150 million, or even 200 million, at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Second, the famine problem at the end of the Ming Dynasty was largely no worse than that at the end of the Qing Dynasty. A Ding Wuqi famine at the end of the Qing Dynasty was more serious than the famine in Shaanxi at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Ding Wuqi famine, from 1876 to 1879, lasted for four years; It includes Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Zhili and Shandong provinces, and affects northern Jiangsu, northern Anhui, Longdong and northern Sichuan; Hundreds of millions of people were affected and at least 10 million died of starvation. But it did not lead to an influential peasant uprising.

The main reason why the famine at the end of the Ming Dynasty turned into a large-scale popular uprising and peasant uprising was that the Ming government's bankruptcy of its policy of preparing for and relieving the famine caused unfavorable disaster relief. There was also the financial bankruptcy of the Ming government, which led to the unfavorable suppression of the Ming army, and the peasant uprising could not be effectively suppressed, and finally became a sweeping trend.

The famine at the end of the Ming Dynasty was so serious mainly due to both natural and man-made disasters.

And the political system of the Ming Dynasty hid several big bombs at the beginning of its birth.

The first is the issue of Zhu Ming's descendants, and the second is the taxation of the clan and the scholars.

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a bitter world, his parents died unexpectedly, he became a monk in order to survive, and later he couldn't even be a monk, sleeping in the open air, others can give the leftover cabbage bangzi to his mouth, and his early experience gave him a major psychological shadow, so he was so cold-blooded later, for his former comrades, the heroes said to kill them, and the officials were also slightly dissatisfied with the quarrel and kill the head, but such a cruel person is really very caring for his children and grandchildren.

He had already designed a road for his children and grandchildren, and his own son, Prince Feng, went to various places to become a big landowner, what about the prince's son? To be a big landlord in the county, it may be recalling his own tragic years, in order to let his children and grandchildren live well, he also stipulated that not only the clan does not collect taxes, but the finance also gives a subsidy according to his idea, to support my family in the world, it should not be difficult, but what he didn't expect is that his descendants have such a strong reproductive ability, and by the end of the Ming Dynasty it has been close to millions of people, and because of the special identity of the clan, a large amount of land and land has been concentrated in the clan mobile phone, which has brought a huge burden to the country! You can't blame Zhu Yuanzhang, who is to blame.

Zhu Yunwen and his group, originally the Ming Dynasty opened the country to collect taxes according to the fertility of the land, for example, in the northwest, one mu of land can only collect one-third of the southeast, so they pay one-third of the southeast tax.

Maybe Zhu Yunwen and they don't know if it's fair or whatever, so they changed this and collected it according to the number per mu.

For example, now that the war is raging, the state has to add 1 million taels of tax, according to the calculation of the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the northwest should pay 300,000 taels, and the southeast should pay 700,000 taels.

It's good now, the southeast is already rich and still pays 200,000 taels less, and the terrible thing is that the Ming Dynasty treats the gentry preferentially without paying taxes, and the southeast is the nest of the scholars at that time, you have paid less taxes, and as a result, you don't pay taxes because of your fame.

What's more, in order to avoid taxes, they put their land and property in the name of a person of merit and fame, and tore a piece from the state finance.

What is the result? The northwest is the poorest but has to pay the heaviest tax in the country, and this has triggered a vicious circle, the economic underdevelopment leads to the underdevelopment of culture and education, the underdevelopment of culture and education leads to the lack of political discourse, and the loss of political discourse has exacerbated the economic situation with the population of the Ming Dynasty at that time, when the Ming Xiaozong died, the national financial revenue was about 4 million a year, which is equivalent to about less than one-30th of the Song Dynasty.

Although there are reasons why the Ming Dynasty did not attach importance to commerce and did not open the sea ban, the main reason is that under the pressure of the clan and the nobles, there are fewer people who can collect taxes.

Moreover, in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, when the Xiaoice River period was encountered, grain production was greatly reduced, and the large reduction in grain production caused farmers to be unable to pay taxes, and everyone who could not pay taxes chose to sell their land or abandon the land to flee, forming displaced people, and the displaced people gradually became rogue and rogue cowards, which led to the inability of agricultural production, and the result was another dead circle.

And the biggest problem is that the land that was abandoned by the peasants was annexed by a large number of nobles and clans, and the result was that the disaster finally passed, and the state had no possibility of collecting taxes on this land.

To solve this problem, modern experience tells Wei Bao that when society cannot mediate, the state must adjust, and it must have a "visible hand", just like Roosevelt's New Deal.

But at that time, the government had no money, and the land was annexed by the scholars and clans and could not collect taxes, resulting in the government's inability to intervene, and the inability to intervene aggravated the annexation of land by the scholars and clans.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court was troubled internally and externally, and peasant uprisings and rebellions appeared in many places, and agriculture was basically paralyzed. And there was a Manchurian invasion outside. The central and local governments are corrupt and do not understand the people's livelihood.

However, with the progress of science and technology at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the promulgation of a whip law gave the peasants a better environment. In addition, the bureaucrats of the Westernization Movement were more practical and understood the people's livelihood.

Therefore, although the situation at the end of the Qing Dynasty is not very different from that at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

President Wei's task is to take everyone under his rule and get through these hurdles as soon as possible.