Chapter 402 Opening the Sea
It is said that governing a big country is like cooking small delicacies. Governing a country is as simple as cooking a meal. For example, in the previous dynasty, those ministers often wrote to the emperor, asking the emperor to govern a big country like cooking small delicacies, how to govern it vertically, and so on.
It's all nonsense actually. Do big things as small things, plan everything quietly, and do it well. The most important thing is people. For the emperor, he must know what he is doing and have a score. Don't let your energy be distracted by too much intrigue.
For previous dynasties, this was an excuse for ministers to compete with the emperor for power. Governing from the top and treating major national affairs as small dishes, the implication is to let the emperor hand over all power to his ministers, and the emperor can play by himself, and his ministers will do everything.
Everything has two sides. The emperor carries the people on his back, and the power is vested in one person. Are these disadvantages? not necessarily. This is directly related to the emperor's own ability. If the emperor is capable, far-sighted, and powerful in means, then if the power is concentrated in one body, what he can do will never be comparable to what can be achieved if power is dispersed.
The decentralization of power seems to have a sense of chaos. But in fact it is just dispersing one person's power to a certain class. Society is still the same pyramid, but it is no longer a certain person at the top, but a certain group of people. There are no changes to the overall structure.
The benefits are visible, and so are the disadvantages. The advantage is that it can prevent a certain emperor from becoming fatuous - after all, the emperor does not live forever. No matter how powerful his methods were, wouldn't Qin Emperor and Han Wu still use the loess? Not every emperor is wise. Even wise emperors will grow old and become dull.
The disadvantage lies in delays and constraints.
Because there is no one who can act arbitrarily, people of this class who have replaced the emperor will have to argue with each other about anything. Compromise with each other and restrain each other. Then get something done - it can never be done 100%, because of compromises and constraints, but it would be great to get 60% to 70%.
No system is absolutely the best, and no system is absolutely the worst. Whether the monarch has supreme power or is invincible, they all have two sides.
The system is parallel, not incremental. It only depends on whether it is suitable or not. Objectively speaking, it should not be judged on the basis of good or bad.
It's like getting married among close relatives. In this day and age, marriages between cousins are common. This has been the case for thousands of years. In the time and space before Ying Yi traveled through, this was not allowed.
Are the offspring of cousins all deformed? No. It can only be said that the offspring of close relatives such as cousins are more likely to produce deformed children. However, the offspring of close relatives have a greater chance of producing geniuses!
Both in the East and the West, the parents of many outstanding and powerful people are close relatives.
In the final analysis, it is a question of two sides, not a question of one plus one equals two. Social problems have two sides, there is no absolute good or absolute bad.
No more gossip.
For Ying Yi, or for Daxia, the supremacy of monarchy was inevitable. This kind of supremacy must far exceed that of previous dynasties, and the degree of high concentration of power is unimaginable.
Because Daxia is different from any other period, Ying Yi himself is different from any emperor.
He has a long life, a powerful soul, is he fatuous? nonexistent. People say that they become comatose when they get old, which is closely related to the person's own physiological state. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty became mediocre when he was old, because his soul was decayed and people became confused. When he was young, he could see clearly what he could do, but when he was old, he could not see clearly what he could not do.
Man's true spirit is immortal because it originates from the creation of heaven and earth. But the soul derived from the true spirit will decay, and the flesh and blood body will decay. For ordinary people on this planet, excluding all external influences, the limit of existence of soul and flesh and blood is one hundred and fifty years old. Then death occurs and the true spirit returns to heaven and earth.
Therefore, immortality requires not only the evolution of flesh and blood, but also the strength of the soul. Otherwise, it is an indestructible body. When the soul is gone, what is left is just an empty shell.
Just like a machine, if it gets rusty or decayed, it won't be able to rotate. So are people. Therefore, no matter how wise the emperors of the past dynasties were, they all became dull when they got old.
But this won't happen to Ying Yi. At least not for a few hundred years.
If Ying Yi had not obtained his true nature during the founding of the country and offered sacrifices to heaven, he would not have been able to go further. With his current strength of body and soul, he has a lifespan of five hundred years. And he has gained the root nature and is already on a further path, so five hundred years is by no means the limit.
A strong soul gives a sharp mind, and a solid body gives abundant energy. The benefits to this empire of consolidating power into one body are self-evident.
In fact, if only the humane plan is in Ying Yi's hands, he is supreme.
It is destined that he cannot be inferior to others. The humanitarian plan is at his disposal, and he must implement it according to his own ideas. Instead of succumbing to others and being constrained by others, we must move forward in compromise and fear.
Every step of the empire's progress is in Ying Yi's mind. From big strategies to specific implementation plans, he has already planned for fifty or one hundred years from now.
If he could be divided into thousands of places, he wouldn't even need officials and troops.
- Unless, of course, he wants to be a machine.
Daxia's plan to open the sea had already been formulated when the sea was banned.
The policy of banning the sea has its inevitable purpose - for Ying Yi, it is a means to clean up the empire's maritime borders. Whether it's to clean up the rat-like pirates or to plot against Yingzhou.
Piracy is a chronic disease. In the previous dynasty, the Japanese rebellion reached its peak. However, it was not truly banned. The Ming Dynasty opened and closed the sea several times. It was not because of seclusion. A large part of the reason was because of pirates.
For Mingting, there was not much that could be done against pirates even in the forbidden sea. But in Daxia, this is not the case. The thorough implementation of Daxia's decrees was unprecedented. Daxia’s navy was unprecedented.
Daxia banned the sea, making it impossible for pirates to survive. No matter how much pirates plunder, it will be useless if they cannot bring it to land and exchange it for profit. What's more, if the navy searches and captures all over the sea, where is there any room for survival?
It has been more than three years since Daxia was founded. From the seas of Liaodong and Yingzhou in the north to the seas in the south, pirates have now disappeared. I can’t say 100%, but at least 95%.
The first condition for opening the sea has been met.
The second condition is property. At the beginning of the founding of Daxia, the internal demand for various commodities could not be met. Whether the sea was banned or not did not affect the development of Daxia. Three years later, Daxia's products have become increasingly abundant, and there is already room for foreign trade. Then the second condition for opening the sea is met.
The third condition is the European and American countries that come to our doorstep. Ying Yi did not intend to go to war directly with the Thai and Western countries during this period. Although not afraid, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. By banning the sea, they forced the European and American countries to come to their doorstep and make an agreement to create the first guarantee for Daxia's merchant ships to travel across the four seas. This is the fulfillment of the third condition.
The fourth condition is the beginning of the process of civilianization of components. The use of Yuanqi sea ships for civilian use is another guarantee that has also been achieved.
As a result, opening up the sea is inevitable.
The first step is to put the policy on paper. In the form of an edict, he announced to the world that the empire was about to open sea.
The second step is to establish a municipal division. The establishment of four cities in Nagasaki in Yingzhou, Songjiang in the Yangtze River Estuary, Quanzhou in Fujian and Guangzhou in Guangdong was put on the agenda.
The third step is to promulgate policies to encourage maritime trade. Within one year, there will be no tariffs on foreign trade to encourage merchants to go out independently.
