Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 363 Eight Strategies
Jian Yong opened this crucial letter from Bai Tu, and after looking at it for a few seconds, his face quickly turned green.
If Bai Tu hadn't looked so serious, Jian Yong would have really suspected that Bai Tu was deliberately embarrassing the court - how could he agree?
There were eight items in total on the letter.
The first one is Bai Tu's own, that is, to rule by dividing the river - with Jiangling, Shouchun and Guangling as the boundary. Bai Tu will not give up the jurisdiction of the General's Office in the south. This is not only responsible to Bai Tu himself, but also to the civil and military officials under his command and the aristocratic families that are dependent on him.
Although it was about the division of territory, in Jian Yong's opinion, this was the most normal and almost the only condition that could be agreed to!
After all, compared to the "bottom line" in this regard, Baitu even took the initiative to return Nanyang and northern Jiangxia...
However , starting from the second point, it started to become nonsense!
The second one can be summed up in two words - imperial examination.
The letter also wrote about the meaning of "imperial examination" and even suggested that if the court did not understand, the general's office could send someone to provide guidance.
But...is this a matter of guidance?
Only talents are selected and officials are appointed through examinations? This was obviously politically incorrect in the Eastern Han Dynasty!
The third article is in line with the second article, and to sum it up is - to establish official schools.
That is to promote the system of county schools and prefecture schools to break the monopoly of knowledge...
Of course, Bai Tu did not say that we should move all the way to the Song Dynasty where the imperial examination became almost the only system for selecting officials. He only proposed that the imperial examination and the imperial examination should be carried out in parallel, similar to the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
However, compared with the Sui and Tang dynasties, Bai Tu's imperial examination also mentioned categories such as mathematics, mechanical engineering, and natural science. It was not just about becoming an official, but also had some seeds of "textual research".
After all, transition takes time!
"Mr. Bai's heart is as bright as the sun and the moon, but these two or three things... are you too hasty?" Jian Yong said in a somewhat stiff tone.
"No rush. The General's Mansion is working on it now. If the court can't do it well, I can send people to provide guidance." Bai Tu's tone was even more blunt than Jian Yong's when he heard it.
Apparently, Emperor Taizong of Tang's long-term strategy of "making all heroes grow old" is now seen by Jian Yong, or the court , as a strategy that would lead to the chaos of the country, which makes Bai Tu helpless.
"Then what about the ratio between the imperial examination and the recommendation..." Jian Yong wanted to struggle a bit to see if the white map left any room for it.
"In short, the General's Mansion will hold imperial examinations every three years from now on, and will encourage students from outside to serve, as well as local students to travel far away to promote the General's Mansion's strategies." Bai Tu said directly.
Translated, it means that if the court does not attach importance to the imperial examination, the talents cultivated by your official schools will flow to the general's mansion. On the contrary, if it attaches importance to the imperial examination but is unwilling to spend money to support official schools, students from Chu will occupy half of the court in the future.
Of course, you can also just give up and not pay attention to either of them, but if the court agrees, these must be announced to the world and everyone must know about it. If you fail to do so, you will not only lose the trust of the General's Office, but also the trust of the world!
Jian Yong moved the corners of his mouth but didn't say anything - after all, he also came from a poor family. Although he felt that Bai Tu was making things difficult for the court, he also expected this deep down in his heart.
The fourth article requires the court to support agriculture and release industry, which is to promote the essence of Shennong and other measures just like the General's Office, while relaxing the restrictions on industry and workshops.
As for pure business, Bai Tu's attitude has always been "don't care". All localities have the responsibility to ensure the peace of trade routes, but commercial taxes have been rising again and again. Compared with industry, Bai Tu basically neither suppresses nor supports businessmen, but... he can ensure that they are not used to slaughter pigs and eliminate banditry in the country. This has made the General's Mansion very popular with businessmen against the backdrop of "peers".
But this tax is really painful. Compared with agricultural tax and industrial tax, commercial tax is the heaviest.
After all, it was Lu Su and others who calculated every aspect, allowing them to make a profit without getting rich overnight.
After all, the dividends of industrial and agricultural development are the result of the efforts of the various departments of the General's Office and the people. Merchants also have the right to enjoy them, but they cannot let the middlemen grab the lion's share...
At first glance, although it somewhat goes against the principle of agriculture-based development, it seems better than the previous two?
However, a small note in it made Jian Yong want to spit at Bai Tu - he promised to reduce the grain tax to one-tenth within five years, and to abolish the grain tax within ten years!
"Mr. Bai's words are a bit too high-brow. Without grain taxes, how will the court be supported and run?" Jian Yong tried hard not to spit out his saliva.
"That's why we need to expand the official farmland. Now Guanzhong is in decline. I heard that the court is going to restart the Guanzhong water conservancy? I think this is a great opportunity. We must take advantage of this opportunity to take back the land abandoned by the noble families and develop collective farming. In addition, with the continued development of agriculture in the future, the output will also increase significantly. As long as the industry develops, the industrial and commercial taxes will be enough for the court to have spare capacity to purchase the farmers' surplus grain to fill the treasury!"
Bai Tu's concern for the court made Jian Yong speechless, but... the concept of grain tax as the basis of economy was deeply rooted in the minds of the people of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
And looking at the fifth and sixth points, Jian Yong feels that the fourth point is not the worst.
The fifth point is that the royal family’s property is independent and cannot be easily taken away, and descendants cannot be enfeoffed without merit…
The purpose of Bai Tu was very clear, which was to target the royal family's invasion of the imperial court.
After Liu Bang unified the world, he said to his father, "You used to say that my elder brother was hardworking and that our family had so much land, while I was idle... But now all the land in the world is mine."
However, Bai Tu wanted to tell Liu Xie not to listen to his ancestors' nonsense. The world belongs to everyone in the world, not to your ancestors, and not to you.
In fact, the Liu family of the Han Dynasty did a pretty good job in this regard. Mainly after the Rebellion of the Seven Kings, starting from Emperor Wu of Han, the Liu family was relatively ruthless towards their own people. They would punish the princes whenever they could, not only if they made mistakes, but also if they did not make any mistakes, every generation would automatically punish them.
For example, before Liu Bei started his army, he was a straw sandal weaver...
Compared with the Ming and Qing dynasties in later times, the royal family of the Han Dynasty did not bring so many troubles, because the royal family of the Liu family could be reduced to commoners as their kinship became more distant.
In the Ming Dynasty, no matter how low the Zhu family fell, they were guaranteed to be generals of the sixth rank at the very least. Although most of them had no real power, the number of their descendants eventually put a strain on the finances. In the Qing Dynasty, the rank was reduced to a lower level, but there was still a guarantee, and there were not only members of the royal family, but also uncles of the Eight Banners.
The Liu family is actually quite good in this regard. Bai Tu specifically brought this up just to nip it in the bud. After all, if the Han Dynasty were to revive again, it would really leave an impression of "orthodoxy" in the hearts of the Chinese people. It might even be as unchanging as the royal family of a certain island country, so naturally, it would be more stringent towards clan members.
According to the rules drawn by Bai Tu, the emperor also had no power to confer titles on his sons, and all rewards that could be given to his descendants had to be taken from the royal family's own treasury.
As for the proportion of taxes that goes into the inner treasury, there cannot be any increase - I believe that once this rule is established, court officials will spontaneously keep an eye on the emperor in the future.
The main thing is to stop conferring titles without merit. Otherwise, if the emperor arbitrarily confer the title of prince of a county on his sons, then wouldn't the tax revenue that was originally supposed to go to the court be given to the royal family for nothing?
But in Jian Yong's opinion, it is not acceptable for the emperor to confer a title on his own son. The rules you have drawn... are going to be drawn on the emperor's face, right?
The sixth point is the criminal law, which not only abolishes collective punishment and ransom for serious crimes, but also implies "equality for all"!
The seventh point is to abolish lifetime contracts and slavery. Regardless of public or private, the maximum contract is only ten years.
The eighth point is even more outrageous, emphasizing that all the above requirements apply equally to everyone, regardless of age, gender, or whether they are convicted or enslaved...
Except for the first of the eight conditions, the others were more about setting rules for the court than fighting for interests. This made Jian Yong not optimistic about these eight strategies, but Bai Tu no longer had any intention of negotiating.
