The tricks made by the little emperor, Guan Zhuofan soon knew. He was unusually calm and did not react in any way. However, if you are careful enough, you can still see that King Xuanjun's expression is abnormal: there is a vague hint of an unpredictable strange smile on his seemingly expressionless face.

I'm busy with this.

King Xuan Jun was indeed busy - he was negotiating with the Americans day and night.

Finally, before Guan Zhuofan accompanied his American friends to Shanghai for a "visit and inspection," the Chinese and American governments signed a memorandum of understanding on the "China-US Talent Exchange Program." This is one of the most important agreements reached between the two sides since the arrival of the "American delegation to China."

It is said that it is "interconnected", but in fact, this "channel" is basically one-way, that is, from the United States to China, rather than from the United States to the United States. At this stage, apart from Chinese workers, there are really no decent "talents" in China who can "pass" to the United States -- and even if there are, they have to be kept for their own use. However, in order to take into account the reality of politics, the word "mutual" must be added.

This "China-US Talent Exchange Program" has nothing to do with the aforementioned "International Student Program". This is a plan for the United States to send large-scale consultants to China for its modernization and modernization, including five categories: "engineering and technology," "operation and management," "finance and accounting," "culture and education," and "medical and health care."

In order to cooperate with Kwan Zhuofan's "Five-Year Plan", the "China-US Talent Exchange Plan" will be reviewed after the expiration of the five-year period to determine what adjustments need to be made in the second phase.

In the first phase of the "China-US Talent Exchange Program", the most important group of consultants is not the "engineering and technology" talents ranked first in the "five categories" - in fact. "Engineering" above. Kwan Zhuofan has no intention of selling the United States alone. In today's world. The engineering technology of the United States is not the strongest, and there will be a large number of engineering and technical talents from England and Germany entering China.

The most important group of "American consultants" are all talents in the two categories of "operation and management" and "accounting, accounting, and finance," and the vast majority of them will enter a new department of the "advisory committee" -- "state-owned enterprise stocks."

Guan Zhuofan proposed the "state-owned enterprises" when rectifying the two Huai salt affairs. It's a completely new concept, and it's only known to a limited audience. "State-owned enterprise stocks", which will continue to be upgraded in the future, will eventually be responsible for the management of all of China's state-owned enterprises, and play the role of the "State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission" in the original time and space.

In Kwan Zhuofan's criterion, the company's share capital, financial funds, regardless of the form of financial funds, are the controlling shares, or the largest shares. All are considered "state-owned enterprises".

These Americans will be sent to "state-owned enterprises" set up in various parts of China. As a "financial advisor", a small number of them will be directly appointed as the "chief financial officer", or even the "assistant", "general manager" and "deputy general manager" in charge of finance.

This huge and ambitious plan is nominally like "training troops in Western France": "American advisers" will help China's "state-owned enterprises" to establish a Western financial system that conforms to the "general practice of all nations" -- the modern financial system, that is, the "balance sheet" and "profit and loss statement".

In fact, this is not a pretense, this is indeed one of the most important purposes for Guan Zhuofan to stuff Americans into "state-owned enterprise stocks".

However, in addition to this, he also had an equally important purpose: on the basis of establishing a modern financial system, he asked the American "guest secretary" to "take care of the house" for me and solve a series of chronic problems that led to the eventual failure of the Westernization Movement in the original time and space: abnormal inefficiency of new-style enterprises, waste, corruption, insider control, no distinction between public and private, turning public into private, and so on.

At the same time, there are two other goals to achieve:

First, in the process of industrialization, it is necessary to ensure the central government's control over state-owned enterprises, and then ensure that the central government has the leading power over the entire process of modernization, so as to prevent local governments from becoming bigger.

Second, to prevent the emergence of "bureaucratic capital" in the sense of "class".

Let's start at the beginning.

As China industrialized and modernized, Guan Zhuofan did not put his hopes on a "new bourgeoisie".

First of all, since the Song Dynasty, China's "capitalist sprouts" that are obscene have been too "sprouts", and cultivating these "sprouts" into a "bourgeoisie" in the true sense of the word is really half the effort.

I can't pull out the seedlings and help them grow.

Around China, wolves are around; The outside world is changing with each passing day.

Bottom line: time is running out.

Secondly, without a large-scale social revolution, the new bourgeoisie must have been largely born out of the old gentry class, which is the most unpleasant and uneasy thing for Guan Zhuofan.

The gentry class, since the ancestral dragon county system, started in the two Han Dynasty, the scholar and the Shu clan alternately played, and in the Song Dynasty, they eventually became behemoths. Over the next millennium, this class became the de facto true ruler of China; And the emperor, to put it nicely, is the "spokesperson" of this class, but if he doesn't say it well, he is actually a "senior wage earner" of this class.

The relationship between the gentry class and the state and society is essentially a zero-sum relationship - the greed and appetite of this class are endless, and when their size swells to the point that the whole country and the whole society can no longer accommodate it, the original political and social structure can no longer bear the weight, and finally collapses with a bang, so the dynasty is changed.

As a "spokesman" and a "high-level wage earner", the emperor's rule over the country could not but rely on the gentry class; But at the same time, it was impossible not to try to suppress the appetite of the gentry class. When the emperor is strong enough to control the appetite of the gentry class without overly inflated, the dynasty will be continued, and maybe there will be some "prosperous era" and "zhongxing".

However, the emperor's ability will inevitably decrease from generation to generation, and at the same time, the size of the gentry class will inevitably increase from generation to generation, and one day the size of the gentry class will crowd the entire country and society, and at the same time, the emperor will be squeezed off the throne.

In the process of changing the dynasty, some gentry will also be unlucky, but as far as the entire class is concerned, it doesn't matter, just change a "spokesperson" and a "senior wage earner".

Guan Zhuofan does not plan to continue to act as the "spokesperson" and "senior wage earner" of this class.

If the gentry class naturally evolves into a bourgeoisie, then this "bourgeoisie" will inevitably be a "bureaucratic bourgeoisie."

China's modern history has proved this, and at the same time, it has been proven again and again that the nature of this "bureaucratic bourgeoisie" is fundamentally the same as that of its predecessor, the gentry class: the relationship with the state and society is an out-and-out zero-sum relationship.

While the ordinary bourgeoisie focuses on "creation", the bureaucratic bourgeoisie is only interested in "appropriation" – whatever class of wealth it is, and whatever kind of means it uses.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the newly growing wealth of society mainly stemmed from the attempts and efforts of modernization and industrialization, and this part of the wealth naturally became the main object of plunder by the bureaucratic bourgeoisie.

Most of this wealth nominally belongs to the state. Thus, in a sense, the fall of the Qing Dynasty was the time for the gentry class and the bureaucratic bourgeoisie that had grown up from it to replace their "spokesmen" – they had completed the appropriation of "state-owned assets", and in order to solidify their vested interests, they had to kill the original legitimate holders of these wealth.

The Beiyang government, the bureaucratic bourgeoisie further expanded; The Nationalist Government, the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, simply held power directly.

We have all seen the appearance of these two governments, and we have also seen how they have been abandoned by history and the people one after the other.

The bureaucratic bourgeoisie is really a big killer weapon for destroying the country and the party, and it is something that Guan Zhuofan must strictly guard against.

As mentioned above, it is necessary to prevent the emergence of "bureaucratic capital" in the sense of "class".

Guan Zhuofan's wishful thinking is that, except for a part of the "enlightened gentry" who have been transformed into "capitalists", most members of the gentry class, in the process of industrialization and modernization, their living space has been eroded and occupied step by step by a new powerful force, gradually declining, and even dying.

It is a process of boiling a frog in warm water. In the process, the gradually divided gentry class, while retaining sufficient resistance power, was never clearly aware of the approaching danger; When he finally saw the situation clearly, the remnants of his strength had weakened, and even if he had the heart to fight back, he would not be able to return to the sky.

In Guan Zhuofan's abacus, this "emerging powerful force" is "state-owned enterprises".

*(To be continued......)