When I went to court and scattered, everyone's minds were buzzing except for Liu Xie himself.

Even today's initiator Xun Yue is no exception.

Proposing a salt and iron franchise is obviously a tacit understanding between me and the emperor! Isn’t it enough to make a decision on the spot? Why do you have to hold a debate again?

Who will be the referee when the debate is held? Is the emperor himself the referee? Then what is the point of this?

In the end, Mi Zhu, who was really unable to bear it, took the initiative to find Xun Yue and insisted on consuming him to solve his doubts.

Xun Yue thought for a while and said, "Actually, I couldn't appreciate the profound meaning of the emperor. Alas, the profound meaning of the emperor is getting deeper and deeper now. In fact, we may not have to understand it. Just follow it and do it and you should know it."

Mi Zhu smiled bitterly, holding Xun Yue's hand and said earnestly: "Brother Zhongyu, don't keep it a secret. If you can't get a clear answer, I will definitely not have a good sleep until the end of the salt and iron meeting."

"Don't panic, don't panic, come on, let's analyze it slowly, learn together, and grow together."

"Uh-huh."

"First of all, the emperor's move cannot be just a whim, right?"

"This is naturally. What the emperor does has always been meaningful. How can one take a step and see ten steps, but how can it be a whim?"

"Yes, yes." Mi Zhu nodded as well.

"In my opinion, there is no doubt that Your Majesty's determination to promote the salt and iron franchise is that the emperor is the lord of revival, but he is the lord of reform. Since Emperor Xuan, our dynasty's government has collapsed, especially the financial destruction and taxes are difficult to collect. By the time of the late emperor, even the imperial guards in the capital were difficult to maintain."

Mi Zhu nodded and said, "It's not just the imperial guards. You know, all the merchants in this dynasty are highly praised by Mr. Sang, and the theory of salt and iron. I have read it more than thirty times since I was a child. I can recite the whole set of books word by word."

"In my opinion, the salt and iron franchise is definitely a good strategy for all generations. The emperor of this dynasty is not as powerful as the Han Wu. If he can implement it, the power of the princes in the world will be all over the emperor. Then the world will be peaceful and worry-free in the future, and there will be no more Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shao."

Xun Yue shook his head and said, "There is no perfect laws and policies in the world. The salt and iron franchise has both advantages and disadvantages. The rare joint efforts of Duke Wei and Taiwei oppose this strategy is all out of selfishness? All the power belongs to the central government, and the local tyrants and powerful people will not be resentful? The world is far from being unified. If this strategy is spread all over the world, wouldn't Yangzhou, Jingnan, Yizhou, and even Yuan Shang resist the court even more?"

"this……"

"So in my opinion, the emperor may not have any deep meaning this time. This is the foundation of the country. The salt and iron specialization of Emperor Wu of Han made great contributions to the expulsion of the Huns in Mobei, but with great achievements, it did cause great evil. It is true that the emperor is the hegemony, but the emperor is also the lord of virtue after all."

"So... the emperor is probably hesitating, right? The ministers in the court have their own ideas, their own opinions, their own factions and foundations. Besides, how can anyone really understand the sufferings of the people? Look at the virtuous literature recruited by the emperor this time, they are real grassroots minor officials, old birthday stars who live long in the countryside, and have just entered the officialdom and have no factional ties. They are completely from the new Jinshi who are from the people."

"So, isn't the emperor really trying to see a debate? The emperor must have done it, but although the emperor is firm in reform, he never despises the so-called ancient rituals. Will the emperor really follow the law of Han Wu and Sang Hongyang's advice to govern in a straight manner?"

"Brother Zizhong, I also believe that among the civil and military officials in the court, you must be the one who has the deepest study of the theory of salt and iron. Do you really think that Sang Hongyang's proposal is correct and that what the virtuous literature says is nonsense?"

Mi Zhu was silent for a while and asked, "So..."

"So this time, the emperor should have no deep meaning!"

“…………”

In fact, of course, it is not just Xun Yue and Mi Zhu who are chatting about the deep meaning of the emperor. After the civil and military officials of the court were all similar, it just happened that Mi Zhu was proficient in the theory of salt and iron. Xun Yue had also attacked this book before, so they could talk directly, while others were talking about the theory of salt and iron.

You should know that there are more than 60 articles on the theory of salt and iron, which is not a Confucian classic. Due to the reasons mentioned in the previous article, the infusion of water here is extremely serious, and there are nonsense. Except for people of special origins like Mi Zhu, even if they have read it, they will just read it briefly. Most people may not even read it, and only a very small number of ministers have studied it.

But when these ministers returned home, they didn't even dare to sleep. After lighting the lamp and boiling oil and learning the theory of salt and iron, they discussed it again, but they really got a similar view to Xun Yue: the emperor seemed to have no deep meaning this time.

This has to be said about the pros and cons of the salt and iron franchise.

Later generations, the book TOEFL on the Salt and Iron Theory gave a very high evaluation of Sang Hongyang on the Internet, and even praised him to the level of the greatest economist in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. Many of his views, even in modern society, are still enlightening good words. Some even say that the so-called economic laws in the 21st century still failed to exceed the scope of Sang Hongyang's speech.

Anyway, in the eyes of some scholars, Sang Hongyang is a god, while all the virtuous literature are silly. What they say is completely nonsense, just like farts, and is all moral kidnapping based on Confucian views. This means that in ancient times, in modern society, they all had to be hung on street lights.

However, is this really the case? You should know that it was the Han Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty. Although the Confucian scholars had risen and Confucianism began to become the mainstream thought in society, it was the Western Han Dynasty after all, not the Song and Ming dynasties. What Confucius and other Confucian sages were still just words, not the heavenly words.

To be honest, when did Emperor Wu of Han do things according to Confucianism? Emperor Wu of Han died for a few years during the Salt and Iron Conference! If the virtuous literature is really bullshit, how could he become the final victory in this conference? How could he carefully organize it into a book with a total of 60 articles and pass it on to later generations?

The so-called salt and iron specialization is that all under the world is the king's land. Since the land is the foundation of the life that the emperor rewards the people with farming. Then those mountains, forests, lakes and seas that are not heaven and earth are naturally the possessions of the emperor.

From stones on the mountain, trees, fish, shrimps, seafood in the lake, to salt, iron and all kinds of mineral deposits, they belong to the emperor, and the people cannot go down the mountain to mine them.

The court sent special personnel to mine it, process and produce it in official workshops, and sell it. The profits obtained were the reliance of Emperor Wu of Han to expel the Huns from the north of Mo.

It is said to be a specialty for salt and iron, but in fact, the major items include copper, oil, wine, paint, sugar, etc., and there are countless minor items.

With the salt and iron specialty, the court is honest and does not need to collect taxes at all, because the court has the right to price all commodities. If it is short of money, it is enough to raise the price of commodities.

Xianliang Literature advocates the abolition of the salt and iron franchise. The most intuitive understanding is the free market economy, allowing the people to freely mine and manufacture goods, buy and sell goods freely, and even the right to mint coins is open to the people. In this way, the price of goods will inevitably be reduced, and the lives of the people can become better, so that they can be rich in the people. The court only needs to draw taxes.

To be honest, there was no Internet in the 1990s, otherwise Sang Hongyang would have been beaten to be a stinky dog ​​shit.

To look deeper, Sang Hongyang believes that ordinary people do not have the ability to mine large materials such as salt and iron, and carry out commodity processing. They allow the people to mine fields, forests, lakes and seas. In fact, it is to allow wealthy families and tyrants to mine fields, forests, lakes and seas. If the court does not control the sales rights, it will be controlled by the wealthy families and tyrants. They will only be more ruthless when they exploit the people. The court will set the price and at least consider people's livelihood. However, the powerful people only have profits in their eyes. To put it bluntly, it means tyrants wealth from the people.

The development of history also confirmed Sang Hongyang's correctness. For example, the Situ Zhao Wen of the dynasty, well... also served as Sikong and Taiwei, a high-ranking official whom the author himself had almost forgotten. During the great disaster in Guanzhong, the court had no money and food to provide relief to the victims. He used his own grain to provide relief to the victims.

He took out the relief to the victims. What if he didn't take it out? Who knows what part of the food provided to the victims is their property?

For example, during the late emperor, there was a Hanyang prefect named Gai Xun, who was also a lord who could use his family's resources to provide relief to a county's major disaster. For example, Liang Yi, the powerful minister of the previous dynasty, whose private land originated from Xingyang in the east, Hongnong in the west, Luyang in the south, and Yellow River in the north, forced thousands of people to be slaves. The family property was converted into more than 3 billion yuan, which was equivalent to half of the annual fiscal revenue of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

This is just their economic strength. Politically, there were too many scholars who lived in two thousand stones for the Eastern Han Dynasty. Although in principle, the scholars and the powerful men in the Shi family were the powerful men, the two had long merged in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

The East and West Han Dynasty were not so deceased by the collapse of the highest level, but rather by the rich and powerful families, which squeezed the living space of the lower class. These wealthy and powerful families have already had the power to overthrow the dynasty.

But of course this cannot prove that what the virtuous literature says is wrong, because, after all, they are the winners. Will Sang Hongyang win, and the world will be better than now?

Xianliang Literature believes that official enterprises, well... let’s talk about official enterprises, which is easy to understand.

Official-run enterprises not only have problems such as inefficient, bloated personnel, inappropriate prices, and high prices. For example, agricultural tools across the country are the same, and the soil differences in different regions are not considered at all, which seriously affects the farming efficiency.

The most fundamental problem is that there is no distinction between officials and businessmen. During the reign of Emperor Wu, thanks to the salt and iron franchise, a large number of merchants entered the court and held high positions. Sang Hongyang, as the four ministers of the regent, was also a businessman, and it can be said that he has basically achieved the ultimate of ancient merchants.

If the powerful people bully the people, the people can still find the government to support them. They can even kill people if they are forced into an urgent situation and die together with you. But if corrupt officials bully the people, the people will have to wait to die.

Rich and powerful bully people depend on collusion between officials and businessmen, but under the salt and iron franchise, they simply integrate officials and businessmen. This giant who integrates officials and businessmen will sooner or later kidnap the court's decisions and even backfire.

To translate their words in modern people's understanding, I have never heard of the richest people in the people who can cause trouble in the world. As long as the court wants to kill them, no matter how rich the rich people in the people are, they are just big fat pigs. However, a super state-owned enterprise giant that monopolizes all walks of life can really subvert the world.

They believe that collusion between officials and businessmen is of course harmful, but this harm must be less than that of the integration of officials and businessmen.

A great man who was inconvenient to mention his name in modern times once said that the biggest enemy of bureaucratic capitalism is the bureaucrat itself.

This argument is really interesting. It is not unreasonable that the theory of salt and iron was praised as a divine book in the 21st century.

The emperor has been reading the theory of salt and iron recently, which is unconcealable, especially since the emperor took power, he has always been cruel and ruthless towards the powerful and the gentry, and has never concealed his heartfelt disgust with the so-called sages.

Zheng Xuan was so angry that he was so angry.

So everyone unanimously agreed that the emperor really wanted to restart the salt and iron franchise, not just to deal with the current refugee crisis.

However, it is also true that the emperor is benevolent and loving the people. By copying the salt and iron franchise policy during the Wu Dynasty of Han Dynasty, it actually exploits the lower-level people a lot, and many of the views expressed by the virtuous literature are actually correct.

So everyone speculated that the emperor really wanted to go into a salt and iron franchise, but after reading the theory of salt and iron sacrificialism, even after squeezing out the moisture and Confucian moral kidnapping, many views of the virtuous literary side still had their own reasons, so they couldn't help but hesitate.

Therefore, the emperor had such a debate drama.

First let the civil servants debate with the new Jinshi, mainly to thoroughly understand the pros and cons of such policies among the people, and then think about how to improve them.

After all, if the salt and iron meeting was held like this, wouldn’t it be a tax conference twice a year soon? Wouldn’t it just happen that the officials and ministers in the court would discuss it again?

The two will be so close, aren’t they just going to consult and make a decision?

It is true that the emperor always has deep meaning, but it may not be true every time. Instead of worrying about the emperor's deep meaning, it is better to think about which party they should support and what changes should be made to the previous law if the salt and iron franchise is implemented at that time.

Well... So in short, Liu Xie finally had a little deeper meaning. No one of the ministers realized it and had no idea at all. Instead, they all actively prepared for this debate.

Especially Cao Cao, Cao Cao, Cui Yan, Guo Jia, and even the great scholar Guan Ning locked himself in the study for two days and two nights, but he never left the house.

We must win this debate. This is a decisive battle between us and the emperor. At least... we can't lose.
Chapter completed!