[54] Rich national policy

After a while, Li Jingfang estimated that Fu Bo had already prepared to stop the banquet, so he went to eat, and the three of them moved to the inn lobby.

At night, there was no one, and the inn was closed.

The lobby of the inn is a simple wood-paneled open room, about the size of two classrooms, thanks to the sloping roof of the Chinese-style building, the ceiling height is very good and not boring. There were no chandeliers in these years, and the innkeeper lit eight arm-thick candles according to the requirements of the Li family, and the color of the candles was yellow, as if they had been placed for a long time. Due to the rough floor and four walls, the floodlight is not very good, so the lobby still looks a little dark.

Li Jingfang said with a smile: "Brother Yao, don't think this place is shabby, when I get to Jinan Mansion, I will definitely find the largest restaurant there and treat Brother Yao well." ”

Yao Fan glanced at the table and said with a smile: "Isn't it very good?" Where there is splendor, the taste is not necessarily good. There is grilled chicken on this table, and there is crispy meat, and there are actually four small stir-fries, well, the winter melon and shrimp skin soup is also green and cute, oops, my saliva is going to come down. ”

Li Jingfang smiled: "Let Brother Yao see it." ”

Yao Fan saw that Li Jingxuan also pretended to come to eat with a melon skin hat, so the four of them gave up their hands, humbly sat down, and drank a cup together as usual.

Li Jingfang put down the cup and said to Yao Fan: "Brother Yao, the book you gave us, we read it for an afternoon, it was really eye-opening!" It turns out that the foreigner's printing technique is already so exquisite, and he can actually shrink the color paintings to the paper! The painter invited by your Yao family is also powerful, the color is realistic, as if the real thing is vivid, and the characters seem to be able to walk down from the picture. ”

Li Jingshu shouted on the side: "The paper is good, smooth and pleasant, the light can be identified, it is not rough at all, I have never seen that paper, Brother Yao, this kind of paper is afraid that the price is amazing, right?" ”

Yao Fan smiled and said: "It's called coated paper, which is specially used for coated printing, that kind of book, coated paper for a single book, is worth more than 4o pounds, about two hundred taels of silver."

As for printing, I used woodblock printing and movable type printing in the Qing Dynasty, and the printing was naturally not as good as this copperplate. The printing cost of such a book is 2o pounds, about a hundred taels of silver. ”

Yao Fan's exaggerated remarks suddenly stunned the three of them, and they didn't know how to thank them for a while.

Li Jingfang exclaimed: "In this way, wouldn't it cost a thousand taels for a set of three books?" Brother Yao gave us five sets of books, but they are worth 5ooo taels! ”

Yao Fan rolled up his sleeves, pressed the chicken butt on the plate on the table with his left hand, pulled down one leg vigorously, and said without changing his face: "Anyway, it was printed at home, and I didn't pay for it." My old man likes to write and compile books the most, and he can afford to spend as much as he wants. What is stamp money? The painstaking effort, manpower, and material resources required for each set of these books are a hundred times more than a few thousand taels. ”

Yao Fan thought that in the Qing Dynasty, a society of high and low, noble and lowly hierarchy and its strictness, if he wanted those high-ranking officials and nobles to look good, he had to put on a halo on himself. Since there is no condition to pull out a certain Qing Dynasty official and dignitary as a tiger skin, it can only be fooled by boasting about family wealth and culture at present.

Li Jing said in his heart that he was not distressed when he gave away things from home.

The three brothers of the Li family eat more than Yao Fan, with a low cup and a slow cup, and a small chopstick, and the three of them see Yao Fan's ferocity in eating, and they all think in their hearts, the cooking skills of this Yao brother's family are probably very poor.

Yao Fan is really hungry, although he is full of food along the way, but every day coarse tea cakes, occasionally buy some soup in the town, there is no oil and water, today can be said to be not for nothing, he is not hypocritical, after all, the stomach is his own.

After Yao Fan ate almost the same and slowed down, the three members of the Li family chatted with him about the current situation.

"Brother Yao, you have been running outside for a long time, and you are well-informed.

Now that the Qing Dynasty has opened the country, and has been communicating and trading with the countries of the West for a long time, and has also run Western-style factories, in your opinion, when will the Qing Dynasty be able to defeat the foreigners? Li Jingfang asked lightly.

Yao Fan frowned: "Your question is very strange, I can't answer it." ”

"What's weird?"

"Trade can make money, but I haven't heard of a strong country just because of the opening of trade. All the colonies in the world were arched open by foreign guns and gunships, and there was no one who became powerful because of trade.

As for the factories, I already said in the afternoon, the factories of foreigners have blossomed everywhere, but what about the Great Qing Kingdom? Handful!

In 1861, Zeng Wenzheng built the first modern factory in the Qing Dynasty, the so-called Anqing Inner Ordnance Institute. In 1865, Li Zhongtang bought the Qichang Iron Works in Shanghai and set up the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to make cannons. In 1867, the bureau set up a machine factory and a boiler factory and began to produce military wheels. Then Jinling Machinery Bureau, Tianjin Machinery Bureau, and Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau were also set up successively.

But these were all forced by long hair to make it out of desperation, and it was not the conscious behavior of the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military forces. These pitiful factories are used to make guns and ammunition, and to put it bluntly, all of them burn money, and none of them can make money.

I heard that Li Zhongtang was also troubled by this money-burning method, and he had already begun to seek wealth. No, I set up a steamship China Merchants Bureau, counting on making money from shipping.

It's just that just tinkering and making piecemeal things like this, I don't see where there is the ambition of a strong country. ”

Li Jingfang listened to Yao Fan talking about his Lao Tzu, but his tone was very calm, impartial, and there were no extreme words, and he let go of his worries before, and asked sincerely: "Then Brother Yao thinks, how can he strengthen the country?" ”

Of course, Yao Fan knew that the Qing Dynasty was terminally ill and incurable, but he put down his chopsticks, squinted his eyes and looked at Li Jingfang, seeing that his expression was very serious, he said in his heart: "If I give this kid some medicine, can he infect him with Lao Tzu by the way?" Will it be good for my current plan of rebellion? ……”

Yao Fan glanced at the other two boys of the Li family again, and saw that their tutors were very good, so they didn't speak, and were waiting to hear what Yao Fan planned to say.

Yao Fan showed a harmless smile and said: "If you want to strengthen the country, you can make more money without him." ”

The three members of the Li family were a little deflated when they heard Yao Fan hold back for a long time and only had no head and no brains to say this.

Li Jingfang heard that Yao Fan's words were not finished, and asked, "Why did Brother Yao say that?" ”

Yao Fan said: "What is the matter with a few factories now? The comparison between the powerful countries is strength, and if the Qing Kingdom wants to catch up, it naturally needs to build more factories, but where does the money come from? Is it just a steamship China Merchants to make money? ”

Li Jingfang thought to himself: "This Yao Fan is talking about business, although he can't get rid of the nature of businessmen, but he is also telling the truth. ”

So he asked: "Then according to Brother Yao's opinion, how can I make more money?" Who in the world doesn't want to make money? But once the imperial court wants to make money, it will inevitably raise taxes, and who in the world does not object? ”

Yao Fan said: "It's very simple to make money, the imperial court can collect industrial taxes." ”

Li Jingfang said: "Industrial tax? Brother Yao, you also said that there are only a few factories in the Great Qing Kingdom, and they are all government-run, do you collect your own taxes? ”

Yao Fan said: "The reason why there are few factories in the Qing Dynasty is because the factories are all government-run, and the government does not allow private factories to run factories. Brother Li, do you think that if the government allows private enterprises to set up factories, then factories will inevitably bloom everywhere like the West, and the more factories there are, the more taxes they will have, won't this be rich? ”

Li Jingfang said: "How to make private factories? All the princes in the audience said that this would ruin the people's customs! At present, it is already a discussion between the government and the opposition that allows the government to supervise and commercialize, and how many ministers are clamoring to change the official, superintendent, and commercial offices into the royal government's own official camp.

Brother Yao, you think, once a private factory is set up, there are as few as 100 people, and as many as 1,000 people gather in one place for a long time.

If someone has ulterior motives to solicit idlers and gather people to rebel in the name of setting up factories, how can this be good?

Besides, if a factory is set up and all the strong people go to work in the factory, won't there be no one to plant the fields? Agriculture is the foundation of the world, if agriculture is unstable, the world is restless. ”

When Yao Fan heard this, the sweat came down, and he said in his heart, "Recruit idlers and gather people to rebel...... Are you talking about me? You're talking about me, aren't you? You must be talking about me! ”

Speaking of which, Yao Fan must try to reverse the concept of these three people: "Western countries are full of factories, why don't they rebel?" On the contrary, as soon as the Qing Dynasty built a factory, it was going to rebel? Could it be that the monarch of the Great Qing Kingdom is a faint monarch? The government of the Great Qing Kingdom is so unbearable?

Three Brother Li, you should have confidence in the people of the Great Qing Kingdom! Who wants to do something that is out of their head? ”

The young Li Jingshu couldn't help but speak: "The Manchu people are not working, business, or farming, so naturally they will not rebel, but there are always many Han people in the world, but the emperor is a Manchurian, and the court will naturally be worried." ”

Li Jingfang feigned anger and frightened his younger brother: "Is this also possible?" Hugh is talking nonsense. ”

Yao Fan said with a smile: "Ahem, in fact, everyone in the world understands that the imperial court has this concern, even foreigners understand, I see that the Englishman Count Margarny wrote in his memoirs that he went to the capital to meet the emperor, he said: 'You can have a good conversation with a group of Han officials, but once a full of officials walks into the room, the atmosphere of the whole room will immediately change, and everyone on the scene will become a little anxious almost instantly. ’

You see, even foreigners can see that there is an invisible wall between the Manchus and Hans. Let me ask the three of you, is there any powerful country in the world like this? Can such a country really become a strong country?

I advise the three of them, don't dig out your mind to think about what a strong country, make money or study honestly, and live a good life in your own house is serious. When the sky falls, there is a tall man on top of it, what are we talking about? If the court knows that you are worried about the government, maybe it will punish you for a big crime, and you will cry without tears when the time comes. ”

Li Jingshu was very depressed when he heard Yao Fan's words, and said: "I know that the person from Magalni is a British envoy, and this person actually said such things behind his back?" Brother Yao, do you have credentials? ”

Yao Fan said: "Believe it or not, this is what they said in the newspaper after returning to China, in black and white, is this still false?" ”

Li Jingfang did not give up, and asked: "Brother Yao, is there no other way than to let private factories collect industrial taxes?" ”

Yao Fanxin said: "The meat is here." ”

Quickly said: "There is another way!" ”

Li Jingfang's eyes lit up: "Brother Yao, please speak." ”

Yao Fan said: "Banknote." ”

Tips: The new domain name "biquge.info" has been launched by Biquge, and the original domain name is about to be discontinued. Please tell each other, thank you!