No one knows what Liu Du will do.

He may convey the true attitude of the elders towards the Jiangnan giant businessmen to some people in line with certain values, and he may excitedly start to contact relatives and prepare to seize power and win the big business in Jiangnan.

For the elders, no cause can be built on the allegiance of a particular person or power.

The so-called backing on the mountains and falling on the water, relying on the water is nothing, nothing more than that.

Li Xiangqian's actions in Suzhou were almost unobstructed, except for the messengers who drove away all the beggars and idlers near the Humble Administrator's Garden, and naturally they did not dare to approach.

After all, as soon as he arrived in Jiangnan, he killed people with hot hands, and he still killed people, although the "favorability" column of the Elders' Church dropped sharply, but it itself changed from coldness to hostility, and there was no difference in nature.

Politically, I am not afraid of offending people, but I am afraid of not knowing who my basic plate is.

Many people want to be the "president of the people", which means that they want to curry favor with all the voters, and those who do so end up all on the streets, for the simple reason that people choose you for their own benefit, not to give money to their opponents.

In Chinese history, by the time of the Qin and Han dynasties, the local core area had been stabilized, and the reason for this was actually very simple, transportation.

The rebellion of the Central Plains Dynasty on the frontier was dealt with in line with the principle of calming things down, which naturally caused the dissatisfaction of military fans and historical keyboard warriors.

In fact, what is on the minds of the real rulers is, strategically speaking, costs and benefits; Tactically speaking, it is the loss of troops and the logistics and transportation.

In the history of the Central Plains Dynasty, it was basically difficult to please in the war against the border peoples, and the Han Dynasty was strong and strong, but in the war with the rebellion of these border peoples, it was rarely able to take advantage.

Why? Isn't it a human being, isn't it, even a group of children can simply learn what a queue is, what is fire cover, and as for cutting people, it is a family heirloom, in terms of inheritance, it is a fighting nation.

Is there no money and food?

Because it is impossible to turn a strong national power into a military advantage.

Distance is a problem, water, soil and climate are a problem, replenishment of troops is a problem, terrain disadvantage is a problem, and so on. Although the Han Dynasty was a great country with strong national strength, it fought against the local natives in the border areas, and the overall advantage of national strength could not really be transformed into local advantages, and it always revealed a kind of helplessness that could not be used.

It's about like a mosquito buzzing in your ears when you sleep at night, you can slap a hundred of them to death, but at night when sleepiness strikes, you still can't do anything about it. In the end, I can only think, you hurry up and go to rest after sucking blood, don't make me sleep!

It's helpless, it's just helpless.

As for China, as for Europe, the worst thing is that Europe has rich North Africa and the Middle East that can loot nearby and feed the blood and tears of being bullied, while China's southeast and northwest are all properly poor ghosts, which is also the inevitable situation after China's early development was too fast, and the surrounding satisfaction was stupid.

The north side is already a glacier, and you can immigrate to the past if you like to live.

To the south were primeval jungles, as well as monkeys from Southeast Asia, which, at least in those days, were too difficult to develop.

To the west is ......

In short, the first problem that the traveler who travels back to the Celestial Empire and intends to do it vigorously is not the invention of glass soap and other tattered games such as fur, but the answer to the people, spending a huge cost in vain, and finally getting nothing, or even worsening the situation, so what is the point of this previous effort?

If you are not convinced, you will be beaten, this seems to be the general logic of normal people. But the next thing a mature and rational person will think is, can I win? Is it worth fighting? If you can't win, why humiliate yourself?

A strong national strength is only a prerequisite for a strong military, but it is not the whole story. The connotation of military strength is far more than this, and geographical factors, logistical capabilities, and the quality of soldiers are all objects to be considered.

A dynasty is like a bucket, and the final test is not how long most of the planks of the bucket are, but which plank is the shortest in order to calculate how much water it can hold.

Some ethnic groups have insufficient population, or culturally tend to have fewer children and fewer children, then there are many more problems, and they basically disappear.

And if the area is insufficient, that is, when the legendary weather forecast is made, there is rain in the whole country, and the whole country is sunny, and a cloud will be covered, then the means of fighting natural disasters will be seriously weakened, and it will not be able to withstand disasters at all.

That's why small countries are often driven by business.

Water transportation is a mode of transportation that has been used in the early stage of human civilization, in the era when there was no steam engine, it was difficult to tame power animals, and wheels had not yet appeared, if you want to transport a bunch of materials from one place to another, then the ship is an indispensable good thing.

Water transportation, at least in the case of the canal, if there is no middle-level structure that fills private pockets, it can be saved by at least half, and if it is sea, it can also be saved, which can be said to have accompanied the footsteps of China and even human history.

Of course, in the Ming Dynasty, the two major tumors at the end of the Ming Dynasty were the Guanning Iron Cavalry in Liaodong and the Cao Yun on the canal.

These two major industries are bundled policies in a sense, and even if someone finds something wrong and wants to rectify it, it will be caused by the formation of a huge interest group to "commit suicide", which is no joke.

Six million taels of silver a year, equivalent to sixty percent of the government's revenue, has been exhausted to the end, but it is still a group of people who dare not fight and can't stand defending the city.

Seeing this, countless descendants sighed, at that time, one hundred taels of silver was enough to buy many Lori Shuangshuang, enough for a family to live for several years, if the reward was opened, five hundred and two heads to buy the heads of the full people, you can do 12,000 Eight Banner soldiers every year, this is not counting the people who can't get the money, and the Eight Banners can't do so insistence, so it won't take a few years to be destroyed.

In the same way, Cao Yun itself is also an expedient measure, originally in the time of the Mengyuan Dynasty, sea freight has been implemented, but after changing to Cao Yun, the annual Cao Yun is a lot of expenses.

The Cao Gang came into being.

Ten people in a boat, ten boats in a gang, a team of boats, under this complex organization and scheduling, it is definitely necessary to produce rivers and lakes.

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.

The real Cao Gang is until my Qing Dynasty, and the annual grain transported by Cao is about two or three times that of the Ming Dynasty, after all, the Ming Dynasty does not have hundreds of thousands of uncles who eat hardcore sorghum without farming, and only began to appear, and in this Ming Dynasty, the so-called Cao Gang is much looser.

The Cao Gang organization has become a major "trade union" to protect its own interests, because at that time, the Cao Gang was bullied from the small military attache to the sailors who escorted the boats, so after the group, it was more convenient to deal with the local snakes and officials in key positions.

To pay for the grain into the warehouse, it is necessary to inspect the goods, and those officials, whether your white rice is fresh rice or aged rice is just a word from others.

Therefore, it is natural that there are many loose masters, which bite do they eat?

The floating revenue collected from the hands of the people, which means that the freight of this transportation is often more thankful than the positive endowment, and after it is handed over to the small boat owners of Caoyun, they have to eat this floating income, but this floating revenue must first feed the officials who collect taxes, and then deal with the treasury officials who enter the warehouse.

And in order to reduce the consumption in the middle and let his remaining "floating income" be more, so under the banner of a certain Cao Lord, everyone will deal with the corrupt officials who collect grain.

Of course, the master of Cao is by no means a person, there are those who manage accounts, there are those who supervise, there are those who do ordinary things, and there are those who engage in "tackling key problems", and so on, but they are almost the same in essence.

At the beginning of the Cao Gang in the Ming Dynasty, after being slaughtered, it recovered in the era of "I am in the Qing Dynasty", and even Qianlong also joined the gang, but its characteristics are very simple: the ingredients are single, they are all proletarian dick silk young men, well-organized, this is of course, the rules of the transportation industry, the most afraid is the person who steals things on the ship, and the paramilitary management is also very normal.

Under this advantage, in later generations, first the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rebelled, the Yellow River was diverted, and the Cao transportation gradually became more and more difficult to operate, and the Westerners' new sea boat tugs also began to be sold into China, and the Cao Gang naturally quickly collapsed, but relying on the original organizational model and relationship network, with its strict organization and righteousness, it became a quasi-military underworld organization in the area along the canal, and quickly became a hegemon.

After the Cao Gang entered the Republic of China, it was officially renamed the Qing Gang, that is, the Qing Gang, and there was a "golden age" in the Republic of China, where tycoons such as Zhang Xiaolin, Huang Jinrong, and Du Yuesheng appeared, covering the sky with one hand, and there were also outstanding talents like Chang Kaishen who assassinated Tao Chengzhang, which was naturally very popular.

However, the ancestors of these people were already very bad at this time.

As their original largest source of business, Caoyun has been completely finished, although the southern provinces continue to collect Liaoyu, and even more actively and intensified, because they have to hand over to the national treasury before, and the enthusiasm is so much, but now they have collected it, but they are all up and down to share their own fertilizer.

You try it, originally you were a toll collector, and you kept a part of the fees you charged, but now you can deduct all the money you receive, you try to see if you will instantly burst the power table, and desperately start collecting money.

And the so-called raising of troops to fight against the rogue in the north, when the soldiers were not in a hurry, there was no movement, but the transportation of grain was basically stopped, in fact, it had already stopped, and it was so-so.

Unemployed for three or four years, living only on the transportation business of private merchants, many people have been unable to make ends meet, it can be said that the people on the Cao Yun have economic feelings for the imperial capital, and they are much more enthusiastic.

On the edge of Taihu Lake in Suzhou, it is so delicate at this time, Li Xiangqian and his party avoided the shade of the trees, stopped to sit and watch the water, he smiled and said: "I only knew when I arrived at Taihu Lake that the first peak of Taihu Lake is actually called Ethereal Peak." ”

Speaking of which, on the Tianlong Babu, Gusu Murong Fu is hiding in Taihu Lake, and there is also an ethereal peak in the book, and there is a grandmother Tong on it, does the old man mean something?

A sturdy old man over fifty came over and knelt down from a distance to say goodbye.

Li Xiangqian took a closer look, this person was wearing a suit of clothes, but he was half-new, badly worn, just looking at his appearance, he didn't look like a too proud character.

Of course, people in this era are very good at disguise, even in later generations, the emperor said that he was frugal, so the ministers all wore patched clothes, which is really ridiculous.

Look at the officials, don't talk about the deeds, there are no clean officials in the world, don't talk about the heart, and the world is full of bad people.

"Lao Zhang, it's really hard for you, if it weren't for you this time, we wouldn't have been so easy to catch the evidence of Cao Juren's crime, get up and sit down."

Zhang Jinsheng saluted Li Xiangqian with trepidation and said, "Thank you, sir." ”

Li Xiangqian said: "Today is about to reach the Dragon Boat Festival, but it happens that there are a few people in the lake who are practicing dragon boat racing, I am looking at the freshness, the old man feels tired, why don't you go back to the house to rest?" ”

"No, the grass people eat too much water rice, and this is nothing."

Li Xiangqian smiled and said, "That boat is a bit bulky, so it's hard to be too fast." ”

Zhang Jinsheng said: "How fast can it be? This Taihu Lake dragon boat is the best beech wood selected by everyone, and it takes a few years to build such a one, which can be said to be not easy. ”

Li Xiangqian sighed and said, "I don't know how many people in the world are starving to death, and these people spend money to support this dragon boat team, but they don't know what their thoughts are." ”

Zhang Jinsheng said carefully: "It's just to have a face for each other, so I just raised a fleet and gambled." ”

Li Xiangqian remembered that the Oxbridge rowing competition in later generations was about the same number, but that family was to inspire the spirit of elite collectivism among the young people of his country, as well as to exercise his body, the so-called barbarism of his body, the civilization of his spirit, the development of sports, and the struggle for the British Empire for another fifty years.

Of course, there are also some universities in the Celestial Empire in later generations, although they can't afford to raise a speedboat team, but they also have their own ID methods, running every day, persevering in their efforts, spending Chinese subsidies, and fighting for the American Empire for another fifty years.

But what are these Suzhou gentry? Spend the money obtained by relying on tax exemption and tax evasion, use a dominant position to force the peasants to go bankrupt, and then let these bankrupt and landless peasants first sell their wives and daughters for them to play with, and then go to the dragon boat team to use their bodies to do that kind of unhealthy exercise, so as to please the gentry, just to make them vindictive and seize the so-called vanity.

The same behavior, one is done by others, and the other is done by watching people, is it the same?

The dragon boat race full of flowers in the eyes of others is the most rotten thing in Li Xiangqian's eyes.

"Hehe, by the way, do you know that in fact, this Taihu Lake is connected to the Yangtze River in history?"

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