Chapter 7050 I refuse

Chapter 7050 I refuse

Yi Ji made his point clear: although Confucianism has many problems, at least on a positive level, it answers and acknowledges the conclusion of fairness. In other words, Confucianism is truly committed to making everything conform to their understanding of etiquette and law.

Now a very big question arises: does what Chen Xi did conform to the Confucian understanding of propriety and law?

Chen Xi's goal of making people wealthy and enabling them to live better lives is undoubtedly in line with this principle. This is why all Confucian scholars agree with Chen Xi, regardless of whether they are scholars from unorthodox or orthodox backgrounds, or scholars from unconventional backgrounds who have passed down the tradition of farming and reading. They all agree with Chen Xi on this point.

In fact, it was because of this recognition that Chen Xi encountered a lot of resistance when dealing with certain matters.

Having experienced the collapse of dynasties and witnessed the rise of an era from its lowest point to its peak, for these people, no matter what Chen Xi was doing, he had indeed created a prosperous era and truly ensured that the people were well-fed—that was progress.

There are many things in this world where everyone has their own opinion, but to see how ordinary people live, you only need to open their pot lids and look at their living conditions to know.

Without a doubt, the era Chen Xi is currently living in is a golden age that no great Confucian scholar can deny, and it is a golden age that far surpasses the imagination of Confucian scholars of this era, and can only be compared with legends.

However, this prosperous era is not entirely bright. Just like the question Yi Ji is asking now, the agricultural population of Yanzhou is only a few hundred thousand, and if you include the people who live off the agricultural population of Yanzhou, it is only a little over a million. The entire Yanzhou now has a population of more than 5.6 million.

Even after the collapse of Emperor Ling's dynasty and the Yellow Turban Rebellion, during the twenty years of Chen Xi's rule, the population, which was only slightly over four million during Emperor Huan's reign, still increased by 40%!

More importantly, the 40% increase in population is eating well and living well, completely escaping the state of hunger and lack of clothing of the past. It can be said that the entire Yanzhou has basically reached a state where everyone can eat their fill and have a good life.

When people are hungry, they only have one problem: how can I get enough to eat? But once they are full, they have countless other problems.

For example, the living standards of workers under Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain Group are completely different from those of ordinary people in Yanzhou.

It was during his inspection that Yi Ji realized that the living standards of Yanzhou agricultural and grain enterprises had reached a level far beyond what he had previously recognized, creating an unfair gap with the ordinary people of Yanzhou. That's why he chose to extract a portion of the profits. To be more direct, is there a problem with Yanzhou agricultural and grain enterprises giving back to other parts of Yanzhou?
At this point, the issue even boils down to whether Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain is a government entity or a company. If it is a government entity, then Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain must bear this responsibility. This is an unavoidable aspect of the Confucian concept of a great government and is the foundation of social fairness.

It's business, what else is there to say? I, a respectable official with two thousand shi of grain, take your profits and give them back to the local people, and you still dare to complain? Are you trying to bully the millions of people in Yanzhou? You think you can just blow them up on the spot?

There's not even a need for further explanation, because this isn't about taking profits; it's a legitimate tax rate, a form of redistribution. Moreover, the Iranian himself isn't profiting; he's genuinely promoting redistribution. Under these circumstances, no matter what others say, they can't pin any blame on the Iranian.

“Of course they are people. The people in other parts of Yanzhou are the same as the workers in Yanzhou’s agricultural and grain industry. They are all the same kind of people,” Chen Xi said in a very politically correct manner.

Although we can ignore this these days, Chen Xi can say definitively that the workers at Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain are a cut above the people in other parts of Yanzhou. He could even say it outright and no one could say anything, since Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain is there, and the people of Yanzhou can feel the difference to some extent.

By the tenth year of Yuanfeng, the vast majority of people in Yanzhou were trying to join Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain Company. Although Chen Xi had kept grain prices stable for the sake of food security, and ordinary families could make a good living by farming, the large Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain Company was still there, and the farmers could see the good and bad. Therefore, they also hoped to join Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain Company and become workers with a secure job!

The "iron rice bowl" here is not an adjective describing a profession, but rather refers to a bowl of rice in the true sense of the word.

While ordinary people were still using wooden or earthenware bowls in their homes, and as conditions improved in recent years and they started using porcelain bowls, large state-owned factories and mines had already begun using enamel bowls.

This stuff was popular for a while in later generations, but it has now been largely replaced by ceramics. After all, ceramics can achieve a jade-like smoothness and luster technically, while enamel, because its base is metal, can't compete with ceramics in terms of top-quality products. Furthermore, it can't compete with stainless steel in terms of production volume. So, by the 21st century, enamel products had basically disappeared from the mainstream market.

Chen Xi: It's very difficult to work with stainless steel these days, but the cost of enamel is definitely lower than that of ceramics. Moreover, enamel has a huge advantage over ceramics these days, which is its gloss.

Since it has a metal base, it is much easier to match the glaze color than clay. In addition, it is more durable and easier to clean. Therefore, after Chen Xi created enamelware, he immediately promoted it to state-owned factories and mines.

The army will definitely switch to enamel lunch boxes in the future, since they are much stronger and more durable than wooden and ceramic lunch boxes, and their total weight is lower than both.

For the military, the weight of logistics is a crucial factor to consider. Reducing their own weight by 300 grams allows them to carry more arrows or a triangular rapier, which can be a lifesaver on the battlefield.

This thing has a fatal flaw these days: it requires steel. This is why Chen Xi discovered that his company's smelting division was building blast furnaces every day, yet there was always a shortage of steel. This is because there are always special uses for steel, such as enamel bowls, cups, and basins.

If this were to be widely adopted, we would manufacture at the lowest possible level and based on the minimum demand, producing only 80 million enamel bowls, 20 million enamel cups, and 10 million enamel basins. A standard enamel bowl weighs 165 grams, an enamel cup weighs 80 grams, and a large enamel basin weighs 600 grams. We would not produce other sizes initially; for ease of rolling, we would only produce these three types.

Producing so many enamel bowls and cups would require more than 20,000 tons of steel, leaving Chen Xi speechless. He then took more than 2,000 tons of quota from the elders and used it to produce for state-owned factories and mines. However, even with these 2,000 tons of steel, it was still not enough to meet the needs of the state-owned factories and mines.

After all, as Yi Ji said, agricultural products account for about one-fifth of Yanzhou's population, and the production quota of more than two thousand tons that Chen Xi managed to obtain was not enough for large state-owned enterprises in various regions to share...

However, it is precisely because of this thing that the metaphorical term "iron rice bowl" came about.

To be fair, this term is widely accepted by people working in non-state-owned factories, mines, and workshops.

As the most important super-large state-owned workshop in the heart of the Central Plains, Yanzhou has already maximized its welfare benefits. Moreover, some things that Chen Xi takes for granted are things that would be shocking to ordinary people if they knew about them.

In addition, and very importantly, Yanzhou Agriculture and Grain truly fits the description of being rich in money and close to home. As for the claim of being busy, to be honest, farming is busy these days. Even with the large number of simple farming tools produced by Chen Xi's orders, which reduced the difficulty of farming, there are still many things to do.

On the contrary, in Yanzhou's agricultural sector, once the technology is mastered, all that's left is to repeat the same routine every day. The summers are not scorching and the winters are not cold, which is indeed very good for the locals.

In addition, almost all state-owned factories and mines have one characteristic, which is a habit that Chen Xi brought from later generations. That is to say, all large state-owned factories and mines must use products produced by themselves.

This is meaningless for mining and heavy industry, but it is quite outrageous for animal husbandry, agricultural products, and so on. For example, the large ranch in the north ate two thousand cattle a year. In the feudal agricultural era, this would have been a major matter that needed to be reviewed by the three highest officials.

After all, a few years ago, the death of a cow had to be reported to the county magistrate, who would then make the decision. Even if a marquis wanted to eat beef, he had to do it secretly. As a result, the Northern Ranch consumed two thousand cows in one year.

After this incident came to light, many people who were able to leave their local areas would sneak off to the northern ranches whenever they had the chance, not for any other reason than to taste the beef. Some veterans from the northern regions even pretended to stay at the various ranches in the northern frontier just to pay some money to get some beef to eat.

Frankly, it's precisely because such outrageous behavior can be compliant with regulations that Donglai Ocean Fisheries Company eating its own fish, Jiaozhou Coconut Processing Plant eating its own coconut flakes, and Yangzhou Fish Paste Rice Cake Processing Plant eating their own fish paste rice cakes, etc., don't even qualify as news.

Similarly, it is only natural for Yanzhou Nongliang to eat the various pastries produced by their own farms. The problem lies in the existence of a dual pricing system. Nongliang's premium pastries can sell for 30 to 50 coins on the market, and even the ordinary packaged large pastries can cost more than 10 coins.

For ordinary people of this era, these snacks were considered very expensive, but the workers at Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain Company were already somewhat tired of them.

After all, no matter how delicious something is, you're allowed to taste it from the moment it enters the factory. If you eat too much of it, even if you develop a certain fondness for it, you'll have to slow down. Any agricultural product manufacturing plant solves the problem of people stealing food by ensuring that you can eat it in a way that allows you to view it with a normal attitude.

To draw an analogy, it's like a child hearing that his older brother, who works in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou, says that his brother is tired of eating KFC and McDonald's, which are his favorite foods but hard to get, and that when there's nothing else to eat at work, these are the only things he can manage...

What a shock this must be for a child!

The same applies to other residents of Yanzhou. They're tired of such expensive snacks? Seriously, isn't your standard of living a bit too high?!

Yi Ji also realized this, which is why he began to take the risk of extracting excess profits from the agricultural products of Yanzhou to support other parts of Yanzhou. After all, the gap was too big. As the governor of a province and a traditional Confucian scholar, he could not ignore this gap.

After all, he was not a Legalist, so he had to face up to this gap and ensure that people who belonged to the same group could enjoy the same things. This was the foundation of his Confucianism.

"Lord Chen, since you say so, then I will lay out everything I have seen and know for judgment." Yi Ji took a deep breath and expressed his hidden anger.

Before coming, Yi Ji had made two preparations. One was that Chen Xi would directly follow Xunzi's saying that people are grouped by their kind, which would be straightforward. The other was what Chen Xi was saying now: to continue moving forward along the path of a utopian society and bring this prosperous age to the level that others had only imagined in books.

Although when Yi Ji arrived, based on Chen Xi's behavior over the past ten years, he believed that Chen Xi would continue to move towards a utopian society and would not simply end the matter with a crude statement about people being divided into groups, Yi Ji still had some concerns before Chen Xi spoke.

But now that the route hasn't changed, everything that needs to be said must be said.

"Leaving aside profits, the benefits enjoyed by Yanzhou Agriculture and Grain Group far exceed those of most ordinary people in Yanzhou. The two are no longer on the same level, which has created a certain injustice." Yi Ji laid the issue bare. "I can ignore whether Yanzhou Agriculture and Grain Group is a government or a business, but I must speak out about this injustice that is out in the open, and I must speak out for the people under my jurisdiction."

“Even if you take back the profits from Yanzhou Agriculture and Food, you still can’t eliminate this injustice. Moreover, due to the progress of society, what Yanzhou Agriculture and Food now has is completely useless to ordinary people in Yanzhou.” Chen Xi did not directly deny Yi Ji, but simply pointed out certain things.

“I know, things like nurseries and closed-off patrol personnel are completely unnecessary in ordinary villages,” Yi Ji said in a low voice. “These things should be considered as products of overall regional progress, and it would be meaningless for other places to build them now.”

It's not that we don't want to give it, but that giving it would be useless because social productivity hasn't reached that level.

There is a very subtle indicator for early childhood education: the cost of parents and grandparents taking care of their children is greater than the cost of sending them to early childhood education. For most rural areas in Yanzhou, this level is simply impossible to achieve.

The same applies to education. Educational resources are naturally concentrated in developed areas. This is a human tendency and a flow of social resources. Although this flow is not entirely a good thing, it is better to look at it more openly than to fixate on it.

Chen Xi had long realized that complete fairness was impossible, because everyone's understanding of fairness was different, so all Chen Xi could do was achieve relative fairness.

"What you see the workers at Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain receiving is actually a form of reciprocal support from state-owned enterprises as the country develops and progresses. In fact, whether you agree with this or not, I have to say that 80% of Yanzhou Agricultural and Grain's profits are given to the state, and then I personally inject them into various places for road construction, logistics, transportation, and so on," Chen Xi said, looking at Yi Ji.

Compared to running a kindergarten, selling snacks, or other flashy but impractical things, Chen Xi invested most of the money earned by these state-owned factories into the local transportation and logistics industry. The logic of "to get rich, build roads first" is absolutely sound at present, so Chen Xi is constantly urging Sun Qian to build roads.

"Let's solve the most basic problems first, and then pursue those superficial things. It's not that we don't prepare them, but that they don't need them right now," Chen Xi said expressionlessly. "You can ask the Records and Records Office for the economic indicators of ordinary people in Yanzhou, but you probably won't need to. As the governor, you should know the economic level of various places in Yanzhou better than we do."

“I do understand that, but what I want to say is that we should not worry about scarcity but about inequality,” Yi Ji said coldly. “The agricultural products of Yanzhou are right there. The people of Yanzhou are not blind. They can see the gap. Are we just going to ignore it?”

"Then what should we do?" Chen Xi asked rhetorically. "Should we smash up the agricultural and grain production in Yanzhou and make everyone go back to the old ways? That's impossible. The agricultural and grain production in Yanzhou is essential. Currently, the main source of non-staple foods consumed by the various states in the Central Plains is produced in Yanzhou. As the heartland of the Central Plains, Yanzhou has an obligation to undertake this task. We can't just abandon it for the sake of so-called verbal fairness."

"We'll extract the profits from Yanzhou's agricultural products and use them to support other parts of Yanzhou," Yi Ji said in a deep voice. Chen Xi chuckled twice, which, in a sense, revealed his true intentions.

"What is the extraction percentage?" Chen Xi was quite easy to talk to.

This light tone sent a chill down the spines of all the governors present, who had large state-owned workshops in their own territory. Yi Ji also felt this pressure, but still stared at Chen Xi and spoke.

“Yanzhou’s agricultural and grain sector must support the overall development of Yanzhou. Given Yanzhou’s size, if we need to continue to advance those minor details, we need to extract at least 30% of the profits.” Yi Ji took out the dossier he had prepared and had it presented to Chen Xi.

Chen Xi took the dossier, smiled, opened it and looked at the detailed entries inside. Then he looked at Sun Qian, then at Man Chong, and finally glanced around at the governors of various prefectures present.

"It's very well written." Chen Xi nodded. "The stance is also very clear. It's not about thinking about oneself, but about the future of the people of Yanzhou."

After these words were spoken, all the governors, led by Yi Ji, felt a sinking feeling in their hearts, because they realized that Chen Xi had actually refused.

“But I refuse,” Chen Xi said calmly. “The benefits I can gain from having this money put under the control of the central government far outweigh the development speed you described in the case file.”

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