I want to be emperor

Although the price of mild steel used in building ships is still relatively high, this is because the output of wrought iron has not really increased. At the same time, there are also some problems in the processing of mild steel, which has not been able to solve the industrial production of large parts for the time being.

However, technology continues to develop. The production of wrought iron as a soft material will continue to increase, and the increase will be very fast. It is estimated that it will reach more than [-] tons in a few years.

In terms of processing, Daye Heavy Machinery Company and even other machinery companies are also working hard, maybe one year or two, maybe three years or four years, but they can always solve the problem of mass production.

When that time comes, the cost of iron parts for shipbuilding will drop significantly, even more than the cost of using wood.

This is what the Navy's top management values.

Use cheaper iron to build ships and get better performance.

In this way, the Navy can have a large fleet at a lower cost.

Therefore, the high-level navy also attaches great importance to the application of iron materials on warships. The successful construction of iron-ribbed wood-hull ships is also directly related to the next step of the navy's strategic development.

For these, Luo Zhixue, as the ruler of the empire, is equally clear, even more clear than the high-level navy, and this is also an important reason why Luo Zhixue continues to promote technological development.

The continuous development of industrial technology is the improvement of production efficiency, and the improvement of production efficiency means the reduction of costs. The reduction of costs will allow more industrial products to enter the homes of ordinary people and improve people's living standards.

As for whether to make money or not, this is actually secondary.

For the ruler of a country, the purpose of developing industry is not to make money, because for the emperor Luo Zhixue, purely making money is meaningless to him, and it actually means nothing to the entire empire.

The continuous improvement of people's living standards is what is really meaningful.

The direct purpose of Luo Zhixue's industrial revolution was to increase people's income, improve people's living standards, and let people live and work in peace and contentment through industrial development.

Rather than other messy things.

If one thing has no effect on improving the living standards of the people, then it is of no value to the empire.

This concept can actually be expanded to develop armaments.

Why did Luo Zhixue build a large-scale navy? It was not for the sake of producing dozens or hundreds of warships, but for building a powerful navy, and then using this powerful navy to compete for overseas living space for the people of the empire.

In Luo Zhixue's mind, the navy's direct role is to protect and compete for overseas interests.

For example, protecting shipping routes, protecting the overseas markets and supply of raw materials for enterprises of the Great Chu Empire.

The last is to fight for overseas territories for the empire to accommodate more immigrants.

If it wasn't for these, why would he spend so much military spending on developing the navy.

Finally, why does Luo Zhixue devote so much effort to improving the living standards of the people?
On the one hand, it is ideals, self-pursuit of these relatively illusory things, and many emperors or other types of supreme rulers are more or less pursuing false fame. …

But the most important thing is to maintain their own rule.

After all, if the people can survive and live a good life, they will not think about rebelling. If there are hungry people everywhere... then no matter how powerful Luo Zhixue is, then there will be turmoil every day, and we have to worry that the rebels will one day rush in. The palace dismembered him by five horses.

Maintaining the rule is the greatest pursuit of Luo Zhixue.

In addition to maintaining the rule, then pursue some false fame and the like, such as expanding the territory or something.

Therefore, there is no need to think that Luo Zhixue is worried about people's livelihood every day, he really loves the people like a son... He is more worried about the rebellion of the hungry people and then gave himself to Kacha.

This is also the common worry of many supreme rulers, but because of this worry, the methods they adopt may be slightly different.

For example, some people forcibly suppress all kinds of dissatisfaction through high-pressure control.

Others maintain a balance through various compromises and transfer of power.

Others use the development of people's livelihood to prevent the people from rebelling. After all, as long as they can survive and live well, most ordinary people will not rebel.

As for careerists, this is beyond the scope of the discussion. No matter what era or situation, there will always be careerists who want to be dissatisfied. They just want to get more power and even become emperor themselves, so they don’t care about you so much.

But as long as the interests of the majority of people can be guaranteed, there will basically be no chaos.

As for Luo Zhixue, he is taking a two-pronged approach... On the one hand, he maintains a high-handed rule, such as enacting a lot of harsh laws, firmly controlling the military power, and even stationing a third-class division in every county. Forces to suppress.

On the other hand, he continued to develop the people's livelihood and tried his best to make the people's lives as comfortable as possible.

So far, the effect is quite good. Although there are still various rebellions every three days, they are basically limited to some chieftains, gentry and noble families in remote places, or simply bandits. These so-called rebellions are the so-called Ambitious.

A few careerists committed rebellion, but they still could not shake the rule of the Great Chu Empire.

And with the continuous strong suppression, there are fewer and fewer rebellions today... For all kinds of rebellions, the Great Chu Empire has always been very strict in dealing with them.

It is a traditional skill of the Chu army to ransack the family and exterminate the clan!
The key personnel of the rebellion basically ransacked their homes and wiped out their families, even those ordinary rebel soldiers who were bewitched by the leader.

The Great Chu Empire never said to send people home directly, and then wait for them to rebel again... Usually they are directly organized into various prisoner-of-war camps, and then thrown into various mines to dig or do other heavy physical strength live.

While suppressing and suppressing, while developing people's livelihood, Luo Zhixue is a carrot and a big stick in one hand, carefully maintaining his rule over this huge empire.

Let’s not talk about high-pressure repression, let’s talk about the development of people’s livelihood. The project that has had the greatest impact on people’s livelihood in Chengshun’s 16 years is still the Yellow River diversion project.

This is a huge project that directly affects the livelihood of millions of people and indirectly affects tens of millions of people.

There are four provinces that are directly affected, Henan, Jiangbei, Anlu and Shandong. …

Jiangbei, this is the most directly affected province and also the largest province, because this is where the lower reaches of the Yellow River are located. The Yellow River is in Jiangbei, directly taking the Huaihe River into the sea.

The Yellow River seized the Huaihe River and entered the sea, which even led to the appearance of Hongze Lake.

Anlu was affected because after the Yellow River seized the Huaihe River and entered the sea, the water in the upper and middle reaches of the Huaihe River system could not be smoothly sent out to the sea through the lower reaches of the Huaihe River during the flood period, and then accumulated in the upper and middle reaches of the Huaihe River, causing large-scale floods.

Similarly, Henan was affected for the same reason. After the Yellow River seized the Huaihe River and entered the sea, the water of the Yellow River had to compete with the water of the Huaihe River if it wanted to go out to sea... Then the water in the middle reaches of the Yellow River was difficult to flow eastward smoothly during the flood, which in turn led to more frequent flow of water in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. outbreak of floods.

These three provinces were all directly and severely affected by the Yellow River's seizure of the Huaihe River into the sea, so that in the past hundreds of years, there have been frequent floods, with a small flood every year and a major flood every three years.

If the Yellow River is artificially diverted, the flood disasters in these three provinces will be significantly reduced by the naked eye.

Finally, in Shandong, after the Yellow River is artificially diverted, it will also have an impact on the local area, both good and bad. The advantage is that after the Yellow River water enters Shandong, various water conservancy projects will be assembled, especially some key aqueducts under construction. The project can bring abundant water resources to the local area, irrigate a large area of ​​land, and make the local inland waterway more developed.

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But there are good and bad. The influx of the Yellow River, even if the Great Chu Empire planned and constructed in advance, planned new river courses, built embankments in advance, and dredged and straightened the river sections that are prone to siltation, and then Strong flood control measures such as several flood storage areas have been prepared, but if there is a major flood, it will inevitably have a negative impact on the local area.

But on the whole, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, especially for the entire empire.

Of course, the Great Chu Empire has also eliminated and prepared for potential risks in advance. For example, in addition to preparing for conventional flood storage areas that are uninhabited all year round, it has also designated a number of areas that are still normally inhabited on weekdays, but where large floods occur. The reserve flood storage area for emergency transfer and evacuation of personnel.

Ensure that the loss of personnel and property can be controlled within a controllable range.

The artificial diversion project of the Yellow River is a project for people's livelihood, it's not that Luo Zhixue just wanted to make the Yellow River turn a corner and go to Shandong for a lap!
Since it is a project for people's livelihood, it is natural not to do bad things with good intentions. Luo Zhixue does not hope that the people will be greatly resented and even cause unnecessary turmoil.

Therefore, the necessary preparations are a must.

In August 16, when Luo Zhixue summoned officials from the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Civil Affairs to discuss the diversion project of the Yellow River, he once again proposed to properly resettle the people in the planned flood storage area, strengthen the flood control construction of the proposed river channel, and Focus on the publicity and guidance of the reserve flood storage area.

Luo Zhixue also proposed that during the construction process, local people should be given priority in hiring local people for construction, so as to increase the income of local people during their slack farming.

However, Luo Zhixue also emphasized that during the construction process, it is not allowed to use any excuses to forcibly recruit people for construction. The wages must be paid in place, and the living conditions must be guaranteed in place. In addition, compensation for families who need to expropriate land must be in place, not only There must be direct monetary compensation, as well as land compensation. …

It is absolutely not allowed to throw out three melons and two dates and send the people away.

In this regard, a group of relevant officials who attended the meeting bowed their heads and remembered, when Luo Zhixue asked about the arrangements for the Yellow River immigrants.

Officials from the Immigration Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which is in charge of immigration arrangements, reported so.

"For land acquisition and compensation for resettlers, we entrust financial banks to distribute funds directly according to each company. There is no middleman or yamen to handle the situation, ensuring that 100% of the compensation funds are strictly issued in accordance with various standards."

"For the follow-up immigration arrangements, we coordinated Liaodong and other northeastern provinces and Nanyang, and planned a number of special resettlement areas. Immigrants can choose to immigrate to a certain place according to their own wishes. They can go to Liaodong or Nanyang. The immigration conditions are slightly different!"

"However, although the amount of land distributed varies and the specific treatment varies, they all provide free distribution of arable land, free simple houses, free farming tools and grain seeds, and give corresponding agricultural tax relief policies."

"For those who do not need resettlement and want to work in cities, we also provide arrangements to work in various government-run factories, and distribute them in ten-year installments, with a certain amount of subsidy paid on a monthly basis."

"We strictly followed His Majesty's instructions, and fully granted the Yellow River immigrants' free will, ensuring that no one will be wronged!"

While flipping through the report, Luo Zhixue listened to the words of the official in charge. Although on the surface he was amiable and smiling, in fact he was thinking in his heart...

All the nice words...

People who don't know think that they really regard immigrants as their ancestors, but is it actually possible?
Impossible!
In fact, there are all kinds of compensation, but it is common to be discounted in the actual implementation process. Except for the land, no one discounts, other things are more or less discounted.

The land is not compromised, that's because the places where immigrants are arranged are places with few people and a lot of land, such as the northeastern provinces, the land is so vast, but now the total population is only a few million people, and most of them are Concentrated in Liaodong Province, there are actually not many people in the remaining places.

For example, if these officials organize immigrants from the Yellow River in the past, even if ordinary people run over by themselves, the local government will directly give you hundreds of acres of land for free... As long as you can develop and plant them, you can even ask the government to apply for more the land.

Therefore, in terms of land compensation, no one will discount, or even increase it.

However, in other respects, it is difficult to say, because land does not require money, but other things require money.

But the funds are limited, and corruption and bribery are inevitable throughout the whole process, so there will be more or less problems.

Regarding this, Luo Zhixue knew about it without these people reporting it, because there was a related investigation report from the Internal Affairs Division.

Regarding this, Luo Zhixue's attitude is still the same as before, as long as things can be done without going too far, then just turn a blind eye and close one eye.

If things go too far, let's make an example. …

As long as many things are not excessive, Luo Zhixue is actually quite tolerant towards his courtiers.

There is nothing wrong with earning money to support the family in Hukou, and wanting a decent life. Everyone thinks that, but after studying hard for so many years before being admitted to the imperial examination and becoming an official, earning some illegal income to subsidize the family and maintain a decent life are trivial things.

Even Luo Zhixue has been gradually increasing the salaries of officials in the past few years. The salaries of officials in some economically better places are not low, far exceeding the income of ordinary people these days.

Taking Songjiang Mansion as an example, the monthly salary of an ordinary worker without specific skills in Songjiang Mansion is about two Tang yuan; skilled workers, skilled workers with certain skills can get about three Chu yuan.

The salaries of low-level managers and ordinary technicians can probably reach five Chu yuan.

All of the above belong to the category of ordinary people. If it is higher, then it is a mid-to-senior manager or engineer. These people are very few, so there is no value for discussion.

That is to say, in Songjiang Mansion, the place with the most active industrial development in the Great Chu Empire, the income of ordinary people is between two Chu yuan and five Chu yuan.

And what about the officials of the Great Chu Empire?One of the most common people in Songjiang Mansion, a freshly hired rank-[-] patrol officer, has a standard monthly salary of six Chu Yuan, and all kinds of messy subsidies add up to two or three Chu Yuan, and combined, the monthly income is about eight Chu Yuan.

Four times that of an ordinary worker!
And after working for several years, even a regular nine-rank patrol policeman with advanced qualifications can have a comprehensive monthly income of about ten yuan.

The eight-rank patrol police, such as the captains of the various patrol teams under the County Patrol Bureau, can have a comprehensive monthly income of about 15 yuan.

Well, here we only talk about legal salary income!

As for the seventh rank, it actually has nothing to do with ordinary people. You must know that the mayor of the Great Chu Empire is only at the seventh rank, and the chiefs of various departments in the county are only at the seventh rank.

In the Great Chu Empire, the number of officials above the seventh rank is actually not many; there are only two in a town, that is, the Zhizhen of the seventh rank and the deputy town of the seventh rank; there are only twenty or thirty officials in a county, that is, The first and second leaders of the towns and the chiefs and deputy chiefs of the various departments of the county government, and then count the senior officials such as the magistrates and county magistrates of the sixth rank and the second rank.

On the whole, officials above the seventh rank are not universal among the large group of officials.

As for most of the so-called 'officials', in fact, they have never expected to cross the threshold of the seventh rank in their entire lives. These people have been in charge of specific affairs for a long time, and they are the main composition of the vast majority of the official group.

Therefore, it is of no value to discuss the treatment of officials above the seventh rank.

Just judging from the salary income of low-level officials, the salary income gap with ordinary people is huge, which is several times the income gap.

It can also be seen from this that Luo Zhixue is quite concerned about the salaries and treatment of grassroots officials, and has not treated them badly.

But, sometimes no matter how much you give, there is too little!
Most people will never have too much money, so corruption has always existed. If one group is killed, another group will emerge. …

The Great Inspectorate's crackdown on corrupt officials is like cutting leeks, one crop after another, never ending... Batch after batch of corrupt officials have created countless censors.

Because the censors in the Great Inspectorate of the Great Chu Empire wanted to be promoted, others were unreliable, and they could only hope to bring down a few officials.

If you kill a few corrupt officials today, the higher-ups will be able to give you a promotion tomorrow, and the development has almost become an unspoken rule, even a bit of a price tag.

For example, if you want to become the censor of Zuodu in the Great Inspectorate and No. 1 in the judicial system of the Great Chu Empire, you will not be able to get to the position without the blood of a few senior officials from the second rank or even the second rank.

To put it simply, if you don't kill a few officials above the rank of minister and governor, you don't expect to be the top or second in command of the Grand Inspector's Office.

Don't even think about it!

The promotion of other positions in the Procuratorate is similar. It is useless to seek promotion and experience qualifications, and it is useless to do other things. You can only rely on killing other officials as your stepping stones.

So the high-ranking censors in the Great Chu Empire are all official butchers...

Because any censor from the third rank or above has the blood of a large number of corrupt officials on his hands, otherwise he will not be able to rise up.

In the Great Chu Empire, official corruption was the norm, and the Procuratorate's anti-corruption was also the norm. Luo Zhixue did not interfere too much in this regard. As long as it was not a matter of principle, he rarely intervened in specific anti-corruption work.

Still the same sentence, if you want to be promoted and become a real high-ranking official, Yushi, then you have to take down the heads of a few corrupt officials... As for how to do it, you have to target Luo Zhixue.

However, when it comes to some issues of principle, Luo Zhixue will personally take action, and then carry out a vigorous rectification of officials.

Luo Zhixue did it several times when the empire was first established. At that time, it mainly targeted the remnants of the former Ming Dynasty. These guys mixed into the official ranks of the Great Chu Empire through submission and imperial examinations, and then tried to shake the Great Chu Empire from within. Base.

That is, trying to shake the tax issue of the Great Chu Empire.

In the early years, there were these remnants of the pre-Ming Dynasty in the empire who had been advocating the abolition of the unified taxation of the gentry, the restoration of the unified agricultural tax to the previous combination of the small tax and the land tax, the restoration of the corvee system, and so on.

I also want to change the collection method of agricultural tax from a combination of physical objects and cash to pure cash payment and so on.

Then he expressed dissatisfaction with the high industrial and commercial tax.

In short, they had countless dissatisfaction with the taxation of the Great Chu Empire, and then impeached them twice in three days.

For this situation, Luo Zhixue suppressed it through several years of official administration actions, and sent a large number of remnants of the former Ming Dynasty who mixed in to the guillotine on various charges of corruption and breaking the law.

After the country was completely unified, especially after the defeat of the Eastern Captives, the Huaxia region ushered in a real unification. After the Great Chu Empire was firmly established in the world, many officials felt that after so many years of hard work, they could finally enjoy the glory and wealth.

In addition, after the Great Chu Empire completely unified China, domestic gentry capitals also recognized the reality and actively participated in industry and commerce in an attempt to make a fortune. At this time, these gentry capitals still have a strong style of doing things in the pre-Ming era. I want to pull the officials to do everything.

Under the lure of the money and women of gentry capital, a large number of middle and senior officials of the empire with mud legs were corrupted, and began to use their power to seek unimaginable economic benefits for themselves and their families. They even forgot how powerful they were back then. Those who hate the corrupt officials of the former Ming Dynasty.

The warrior who slays the dragon also becomes a dragon!

For a while, especially in the three to four years around the tenth year of Chengshun, large-scale collusion between officials and businessmen and official corruption appeared in the domestic officialdom, which directly affected the normal development of the domestic industrial and commercial market.