The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 576: Mud and Sand Empire
"Your Majesty, do you intend to continue your reckless behavior until the people's strength is exhausted, and the Great Qi Dynasty will eventually perish in two generations like the Qin and Sui dynasties?"

Liu Zhaosun held his face with both hands and did not immediately answer Kang Yingqian's question.

The dim whale oil lamp illuminated Emperor Wu Ding, casting a huge shadow on the floor of the Dazheng Palace.

Outside the Dazheng Palace, the night was dark. The thin Kang Yingqian stood in the shadows, like a mandrill emerging from the ground. He carefully sized up the demigod Liu Zhaosun and said in a muffled voice:
"When the Emperor expelled me and Qiao Yiqi and appointed the cruel officials Sun Chuanting and Ma Shiying, he should have anticipated this situation. Although Sun Chuanting, a Confucian scholar, rose to power, he claimed that Confucianism was insufficient and that the laws of Shen and Shang were the only way to correct the situation. He was extremely restless, impulsive, and arrogant. He lacked the strategies of Shen Buhai and Shang Yang, yet he insisted on following their ways. Official documents from the cabinet, once they left Liaodong, were like waste paper, with no one to enforce them. The provinces pretended to obey, but secretly disobeyed. The petty officials below were all veterans of the Ming Dynasty. The court oppressed the prefectures and counties, and the prefectures and counties exploited the people. With this, how could they not fail?"

The retired emperor spread out his hands, picked up a cup of hot tea from the imperial desk, and handed it to Kang Yingqian personally. Old Kang took it with great fear and trepidation.

"There are not many people who can tell the truth in front of me now, and General Kang is one of them."

"I've heard Zhang Dong and the others talk about these problems before, but I didn't expect them to be so serious. I always thought the land system and personnel arrangements were good, and as long as reliable people were assigned to handle them, there would be no problems. That's why I handed civil affairs over to Sun Chuanting, Ma Shiying, and Xie Yang. I never thought the remnants of the previous dynasty were so deeply rooted that we could never completely eliminate them, even after killing wave after wave."

As a time traveler, although he has lived in this time and space for almost twenty years, the blood of modern people still flows in his bones. Liu Zhaosun has never thought about the influence of thousands of years of traditional culture on the ancients.

"Forgive me for my rash remarks, but the Qi Dynasty Land System formulated by Your Majesty and Sun Chuanting has been extremely difficult to implement from the beginning."

Kang Yingqian coughed twice and finally got to the point.

In the first few years of the implementation of the Qi Dynasty's land system, the amount of land increased and the population skyrocketed, which was a reality that everyone could see.

"how you said that?"

Kang Yingqian put down his teacup and replied calmly:

"Your Majesty, from what I saw in Jize County, the Great Qi banned money transactions and abolished private property. All food, cloth, and medicine had to be purchased with coupons. However, most of the court's supplies were used to supply the army. The people were living in poverty and could not rely on the government, so they had to rely on the black market."

"black market?"

The retired emperor was slightly stunned. From the information provided by Zhang Dong and others, he had never heard of this existence.

This is not surprising. Zhang Mazi, Liu Xingzuo and others focused their attention on official corruption and defection, and paid less attention to the living conditions of the grassroots people.

"Your Majesty has invested too little manpower in the provinces and counties within the Great Wall. Much of the real power has been lost or left vacant. Where Da Qi cannot control, other forces will naturally take over on Your Majesty's behalf."

Liu Zhaosun nodded thoughtfully.

Of course he knew this simple truth: power cannot be vacuumed. He originally planned to solve the surrounding military problems within three to five years and use the war dividends to feed back to the country. However, he did not expect that the army, this money-eating beast, would be more terrifying than he imagined. After more than ten years, it only occupied half of Korea and a small half of Southern Ming, but it was still unable to make ends meet.

"Most of the lecturers in the school are former Ming Dynasty scholars and students. They have neither outstanding conduct nor practical knowledge to win the hearts of the people. Instead, they seek fame and live a life of luxury. They suffer from proofreading books and just wait for promotion. These officials who are responsible for supervising education should teach the people and explain the laws of the court. However, they are just empty-handed and have no academic knowledge. The people are ignorant of the laws of the court, and the remnants of the former Ming Dynasty take the opportunity to counterattack..."

Seeing that Kang Yingqian had gone off topic, Liu Zhaosun reminded him:
"Let's continue talking about the black market."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The black market in Jize County exists almost completely openly.

Even people from government offices such as workshops and chambers of commerce would take a walk to the black market to buy things after leaving the government offices.

The emperor asked when the black market started.

Kang Yingqian thought for a moment. "About five or six years ago, the imperial court was collecting food and fodder from the northern Zhili provinces for the Eastern Expedition to Korea. Three hundred soldiers and fifty thousand dan of grain were conscripted from Jize County. The people had no food or clothing, so they had no choice but to place their hopes on the black market."

"The black market is inaccessible unless you have special connections. Most of the people there are from the Chamber of Commerce. They keep an eye on each other and are wary of each other. At night, a group of people gather in the south of the city carrying all kinds of bags, and ordinary people go there to buy things."

Liu Zhaosun asked with great interest, "What are they selling?"

"Whatever the Chamber of Commerce has, they have it too." The black market sells a wide variety of goods, with all kinds of trading methods.

"There are transactions with silver and money, barter, and labor-for-goods," Kang Yingqian said eloquently.

A black market for labor was even formed, and the refugees who sold their labor in exchange for food and cloth had a special nickname called "scattered poles."

The reason why it is called "Sanbantan" is that according to the laws of Da Qi, the Chamber of Commerce has transportation cooperatives and labor cooperatives, and those refugees who do not have cooperative organization and can only do odd jobs in the black market are called "sangong" in the streets.

"There's a saying in Jize County: 'When there's work to do, spread the carrying pole; when there's nothing to do, spread the carrying pole.' It means being idle."

The Emperor frowned and said, "These refugees, if not under the jurisdiction of the government, will sooner or later become a disaster."

"Your Majesty is very concerned."

"The black market, and the flesh trade."

Liu Zhaosun gnashed his teeth and said, "The Great Qi prohibits prostitution!"

Kang Yingqian casually wrote, "My neighbor, a relative of an old soldier, had her husband's pension withheld by the local officials. To survive, she engaged in the prostitution trade for a while to support her two children. I gave her money."

Kang Yingqian said this and emphasized:
"After all, people have to live."

The retired emperor was furious, ready to smash the imperial desk in front of him with his punching fist. Unexpectedly, such an absurd story actually happened in Da Qi. Unknowingly, he had already governed the empire to this state!
Kang Yingqian drank tea and said calmly, "Your Majesty, in the past, you asked me to manage the brothels throughout Liaodong. This flesh trade has never disappeared, and it is impossible for it to disappear."

Yes, the history of prostitutes, beggars, and soldiers is longer than that of any civilization or religion.

Looking at the long river of history, whether it was the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, or the Qi Dynasty, they were all just a small wave that disappeared in an instant.

The profession of prostitution will always accompany human beings until the destruction of the earth.

Thinking of this, the time traveler suddenly felt inexplicably relieved.

It is similar to Sakyamuni's sudden enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, Sir Newton being hit on the head under an apple tree, and Wang Yangming's enlightenment in Longchang.

"General Kang, I understand. My relationship with Great Qi is but a passing cloud. How can we reverse the situation with just one or two people? If there is imbalance everywhere, then there will only be imbalance everywhere. The world will be in poverty. Since this is the case, let's compromise. Restore the old system in exchange for maintaining order."

The sun will eventually go out and set. But he still wanted to achieve his goal once and for all and build an immortal empire.

This is the greatest ignorance and arrogance.

A prostitute can cause an empire built on sand to collapse.

Kang Yingqian was overjoyed. He was planning to continue talking about what he had seen and heard in Jieze County over the years in order to persuade the emperor to change his ways, but he didn't expect that Liu Zhaosun was persuaded so quickly.

The Emperor stood up and leaned over to look at Kang Yingqian, who was much shorter than him and looked like a mandrill, and said to this friend of different ages:

"General Kang, I have not followed your best policies before, but this time I will make an exception. Apart from reducing the military, you can do everything else."

"You must know that the army is our foundation. It is the capital of our survival. We must hold it firmly in our hands. There are countless people in the world who want to kill us. Tomorrow, the cabinet will hold an election. You will be the Prime Minister of Qi again. Together with Lu Xiangsheng, Qian Qianyi and others, you will plan a grand plan to save our people. The specific measures will be discussed in the court later!"

Kang Yingqian burst into tears and clasped the hands of the retired emperor tightly:

"I will definitely fulfill my mission and serve you till my death!"

(End of this chapter)