Zhu Jingyuan faced his grandfather's rhetorical question, and did not directly answer yes or no, but began to explain another judgment:

"In the agricultural era, due to transportation restrictions, the scope of business was limited to agricultural farming, so the group of scholars was naturally regional.

"The local scholars and local court bureaucrats formed a natural group to compete with the local township party in the court.

"Although the scholars and doctors in different regions have the most basic common interests, these interests are not enough to bind them together.

"The emperor can coordinate checks and balances, control the scope and intensity of party disputes, and then control the bureaucracy and rule the country.

"The regional party struggle of the Ming Dynasty may have started from the Yongle Dynasty and ran through the entire Ming Dynasty.

"But in the industrial age, the natural factional divisions of regions are likely to quickly become ineffective.

"On the one hand, the owners of the manufacturers can operate all kinds of businesses in the whole Ming Dynasty and even in the world.

"Second, manufacturers in the Ming Dynasty and even all over the world can use roads, railways, airplanes, and telegraphs to unite very conveniently and jointly coordinate and deal with any possible enemy.

"In fact, the royal consortium is a kind of extreme state of this development.

"If it weren't for the legal restrictions of the Ming Dynasty, which handed over a large number of industries to the royal consortium for monopoly, these industries are likely to have super consortia within the scope of the Ming Dynasty.

"After opening up the six major industries, it is also possible that there will be manufacturers of this scale within these six industries.

"For example, if I had not been born into the royal family, but the child of an ordinary merchant, then all my inventions and creations would have belonged to this merchant's family.

"These inventions and creations, based on a certain amount of capital and not too bad management capabilities, can quickly expand to a terrifying degree that is unimaginable for most people.

"For example, I alone monopolize the manufacture of automobiles and engines in Daming and even the world, I monopolize the manufacture of aircraft engines, and monopolize the patents, manufacturing and sales of civil aircraft.

"When my industry spreads all over the Ming Dynasty and even around the world, to what extent will I influence the local and central bureaucracy? What kind of officials can resist my erosion?

"I think the factories and businesses of the industrial age may be expanding at a rate that is much faster than we imagined.

"Whether it is the Ming Dynasty or Taixi, the strongest merchants in the agricultural era, they are all dependent on the monarch and nobles.

"Commerce at that time was a by-product of agriculture, and commerce could not replace the position of agriculture, but industry could.

"With the advent of the industrial age, the proprietors of the Taixi countries slowly changed from being dependent on the aristocracy to controlling the aristocracy.

"Even merchants control the imperial court, and then send their own representatives to form the imperial court, so that the imperial court becomes an internal platform for the owners.

"At that time, bribery can even be legal, because this kind of court itself is a capital wrestling field.

"It's essentially a world where you get what you pay for, and it's completely fair from the point of view of money.

"Whoever has more money has more power, but he must pay bribes according to the regulations, which can be called political donations.

"There is no essential difference between the social structure of the agrarian age and the agrarian era.

"But the effective management and checks and balances of the agricultural era are likely to fail after the industrial age.

"Because the 'order of magnitude' of the transactions to be managed has changed.

"We have to adjust the degree of restrictions on the bureaucracy......"

Zhu Jingyuan knew that during the Second Industrial Revolution, capitalism entered the era of imperialism.

Times have really changed this time.

The era of monopolies came, and giant monopolies began to appear.

The existence of the royal consortium restricts the emergence of manufacturers of this level.

Of course, private monopoly is not good, but too much suppression of this development trend is also restricting the improvement of Daming's production capacity.

Zhu Jingyuan felt that there should be relevant explanations in the pamphlet left by Emperor Shizu.

Sure enough, when Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jianyan heard Zhu Jingyuan's description, they immediately had thoughtful expressions.

Zhu Zhongliang nodded slowly:

"In that case, you really need to loosen the reins......"

Zhu Jianyan said in a somewhat strange tone:

"At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor was constantly fighting against the civil bureaucracy.

"From the Yongle era until the Renwu Dynasty, the emperor continued to fail.

"The authority of the emperor continued to weaken from generation to generation.

"By the time of the Apocalypse and Chongzhen, the resources controlled by the scholars and doctors had threatened the emperor's position.

"It was not until the Renmu Dynasty that the situation was reversed at the hands of Emperor Sejo.

"Now...... Jingyuan wants us to go back and let the bureaucratic system go ahead and even strengthen it?

"Although it does make sense, this kind of thing makes me feel a little hard to accept......

"I'm very worried about whether this choice is the right ......"

In the face of his father's worries, Zhu Jingyuan did not directly persuade and assure, but tried to analyze his father's worries:

"The bureaucratic system is not the enemy of the emperor, and if it had its own will, it would certainly not want to be the enemy.

"Because the emperor himself is the supreme leader of the bureaucracy, and the leader of the entire ruling group.

"The members of the bureaucracy are also representatives of the ruling class, members of the ruling clique.

"The two sides belong to the same collective, the fundamental interests are actually converging, and the contradictions between the two sides belong to the contradictions within the class.

"The emperor put the bureaucracy on the opposite side, and that was absolutely wrong.

"It's just that the emperor, as the head and leader of the group, hopes that his organization and group can be stronger.

"But he doesn't want his subordinates to have people who can threaten his position.

But he also needs to give resources to his subordinates in exchange for capable subordinates to help him maintain his rule.

"Before the Renwu Dynasty, the Ming Emperor continued to lose in the struggle against the civil bureaucracy, and his authority continued to decline, and the fundamental reason was not the victory or defeat of the apparent struggle in the court.

"The most fundamental is the loss of control over land and people.

"The foundation of the agricultural age is land and population, and when the authority of any emperor is the strongest, it is when it controls the land and population at its most.

But for the emperor to control enough land, he needed to rely on the bureaucracy.

"It's hard to grasp how much interest and power the bureaucracy should be given and how much it should be allowed to swell.

"Before the Renwu Dynasty, the resources taken out by the emperor, although there is indeed the possibility of recycling.

"For example, taking the title and stealing the house.

"But most of the time it's just not going in and out.

"Because the lord of the Ming Dynasty is not only hereditary, but there is not even a saying of substitution.

At the same time, because of the restriction on the influence of the nobles on the government, a large number of people take resources and do not work, wasting resources in vain.

"Plus the personal abilities of the emperors before the Renmu Dynasty...... Compared to the aftermath, it can only be relatively limited.

"As the emperor continued to reward and canonize from the outside, the resources in his hands became less and less.

"With the continuous annexation of private land, some landlords have more and more land.

In the process, the emperor, as the head of the group, gradually reversed the ratio of resources controlled by the members of the group.

"When the land and population that the emperor can actually control are small to a certain extent, and the land and population controlled by the people are concentrated to a certain extent, the emperor cannot command the bureaucracy.

"The benefits that the bureaucracy received from other quarters gradually exceeded those that the emperor could give.

"The nominal leader of the Emperor, the resources at his disposal are no longer enough to suppress all the members of the group.

"Lord Weimiao (Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen) has a control over the harem and eunuchs, of course, it is more than that of Lord Ximiao (Tianqi Zhu Youxiao), otherwise he would not be able to kill ministers indiscriminately in the court, and he could still live peacefully to the era of the Renwu Dynasty.

"But his killing of people at the court was not enough to affect the actual situation, but only made the bureaucracy more alienated.

"The old man of Wei Miao will be a civil official, the delegation of the entire ruling class, and his own kind of landlords as enemies.

Of course, the civil service will not willingly help it to rule the country.

"The interests of the entire bureaucracy and the emperor have deviated.

"Before the Renwu Dynasty, according to the official household registration statistics, there was no actual population growth in the three hundred years of the Ming Dynasty.

"Instead of increasing, land has decreased.

"It is generally believed that there is at least a population equal to the number of registered people, who are hidden under the wings of the scholars who study the family heirlooms.

Therefore, Emperor Shizu first completely banned any form of enslavement of the Ming people.

"Then let the land resources form a standardized system.

"The two most critical points are the preferential purchase system of the Huangzhuang in land transactions, and the assessment and inheritance system of traditional titles.

"The former curbs the concentration of land among the people and prevents other individuals within the ruling group from secretly enlarging.

"Let the circulating land return to the Emperor, and ensure that the Emperor always controls as much land as possible.

"The latter ensures that the ruling group retains its ability to rule at all times and at the lowest cost.

"Reclaim the land resources occupied by the entities of the ruling group that have lost their ability to govern and transfer them to the new entities of the ruling group who can provide the ability to govern.

"This mechanism, of course, does not correspond to the wishes of ordinary people, to the wishes of ordinary members of the ruling class.

"But the emperor as the head has already taken the lead, and the emperor's sons also have to be assessed to obtain knighthoods, and the training system is stricter than that of Guan Xungui.

"The future generations of emperors screened out in this way can all be regarded as social elites.

The nobles had no choice but to accept it.

"Because the assessment of inheritance is not a pure substitution, of course, there is no inheritance right if you don't work hard, but if you are willing to work hard, you will have the opportunity to obtain inheritance rights, so the vast majority of people choose to work hard.

"This has led to the involution of our ruling group in the Ming Dynasty as a whole, and has formed a tradition of getting out if you can't do your job.

"So far, at least, the system has worked pretty well.

"The energy of the bureaucracy is always rigidly limited.

"And the royal consortium and private capital are expanding almost unchecked.

"When running a business and opening a factory surpasses being an official, and becomes the most desirable profession for ordinary people, the energy of the bureaucracy will drop to the freezing point.

"Since being an official is not as good as being a proprietor, why do the best elites come to work for the emperor?

"I think we're really going to loosen the reins now......"

Zhu Jingyuan said a long time, and the two generations of emperors, Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jianyan, were silent for a while.

After a long time, Zhu Jianyan did not speak again, and Zhu Zhongliang continued to ask:

"You've been thinking about it for so long, do you have a more mature plan?

"How do you put it? How to elevate the status of the bureaucracy.

"What do we need to give them so that they can resist capital corrosion more effectively?

"At the same time, how to make sure that they are still under control in the future."

Of course, Zhu Jingyuan thought about it, so he spoke directly now:

"I think we should start from two directions, one is security, the second is honor, and the third is energy.

"First of all, to guarantee the living conditions of the bureaucrats, to ensure their own and their families, and to ensure the way for their children to rise.

"The imperial courts at all levels stepped in to provide high-quality housing for all officials, according to different levels and scales.

"When you reach a certain level, you need to have a special sign and a car with a special role.

"The most basic clerks and clerks can also directly allocate fuel mopeds (motorcycles), so that they do not need to commute by bicycle or spend money on transportation.

"Comprehensively build specialized schools for the children of officials, and ensure that their education level and educational resources exceed the normal level.

"Since retirement, the imperial court has also issued relatively high pensions, provided almost completely free medical care, almost completely free funeral services, and given relatively high standards.

"It is possible to build a unified official cemetery at all levels of the yamen.

"As long as he becomes an official bureaucrat of my Ming court, then he and his family will no longer have any worries about their own and family's life and security, as well as their children's learning and development space.

"This saves the bureaucracy from having to actively accept capital investment for the sake of living conditions.

"We are not afraid to raise a family of professional bureaucrats, which are actually easier to be of the same mind as the emperor, because their position is entirely determined by the emperor.

"Secondly, the direct plan is to fully open the title to the civil service system.

"An old bureaucrat who has worked diligently in the bureaucracy all his life, and who has no obvious fault all his life, should retire with the lowest honorary title.

"You can use the name of the once informal gentleman and gentry to make them clear and enjoy a certain amount of retirement benefits.

"Those who have made outstanding contributions can also be given to fairly formal barons, and those who have made great contributions can be promoted in turn.

"Ordinary titles can be Liujue, and special contributions can be given to the Shijue, of course, the same as the traditional title, to be assessed and inherited.

"The emperor and the nobles are hereditary, and the civil officials are not easily allowed to be knighted, in fact, one of the underlying inducements of corruption in the civil service system.

"Civil officials will feel that the emperor and nobles can inherit, but their own status cannot be inherited, so they should use their power more to seek personal interests for their own families when they are in power.

"The emperor and the nobles assessed the succession, which reduced the psychological incentives of the civil service system.

"Now that the restrictions on knighthood are also lifted for them, then civil officials, military attachés, and traditional nobles will be exactly the same.

"This contradiction can be further mitigated.

At the same time, civil titles can maintain or even enhance the aspirations of ordinary people for the status of officials.

"Ultimately, we will continue to attract the best people to become officials.

"Finally, there's energy, and the most important part.

"Give the bureaucracy the resources to be able to counter the royal consortium and private capital.

"In the industrial age, the energy resources that could provide this energy were the means of production, the large factories and commercial houses.

"Therefore, we should establish a government-run consortium owned by the imperial court and whose managers have official bureaucratic status.

"With the government-run consortium, the bureaucracy has the ability to confront private capital.

"The point is, it gives the two sides a natural antagonism.

"The emperor can be in the middle to coordinate checks and balances.

"In the future, the capital power of the Ming Dynasty may be divided into three parts: the royal family, the imperial court, and the people.

The mutual balance of these three parts is the premise of maintaining the stability of the Ming Dynasty.

"The final decision-making power in two of them is in the hands of the emperor, so it is also the basis for safeguarding and maintaining the emperor's authority."

Zhu Jingyuan paused a little when he said this, feeling that the two emperors should understand their purpose.

Both generations of emperors did nod silently.

The two originally thought that Zhu Jingyuan was going to delegate power, but they didn't expect that except for the final project, everything else did not involve fundamental things.

In fact, the guarantee of bureaucratic identity, status, life and other aspects is there now, from ancient times to the present.

It's just that it wasn't as comprehensive as Zhu Jingyuan said before.

As for the last item, the two emperors who had read the last chapter of the ancestors had a word that popped up directly in their minds:

"State capitalism."

The two didn't need Zhu Jingyuan to continue to explain in depth, and Zhu Jingyuan also knew that he didn't need to explain.

State capitalism is not equal to ownership by the whole people, and ownership by the whole people is not equal to ownership by the working people.

State capitalism can be seen as owned by the bureaucracy, or by the civil bureaucracy, by the imperial court.

All the factories and trading houses of the imperial court could not directly protect the interests of the people at the bottom.

But it was the basis for the relative neutrality of the imperial court and the bureaucracy vis-à-vis the proprietors and workers.

If there were no government-run foundations to weigh the scales, if the imperial court enacted some kind of new labor-related law, requiring manufacturers to produce according to certain regulations, and requiring manufacturers to give workers what kind of guarantees, the proprietors might have responded in the same way that scholars and doctors had fought against the emperor.

You can go against the rules, you can resign and go on strike, you can find a lot of reasons that seem very reasonable.

In the past, it was "the court cannot compete with the people for profit", but now and in the future, "the court cannot deprive workers of the right to work and get rich".

If the imperial court dealt specifically with certain individual manufacturers, then other similar manufacturers might join forces to fight against or suspend business and strike, or even incite or even instigate workers to make trouble against the imperial court.

Just like the local scholars in the past, they could find someone to kill the tax collectors sent by the emperor, and if they made trouble, they could also write a "Tombstone Record of Several People" to ensure that the cause they did was just.

It's a pity that in the Qing Dynasty, there was no way to write this kind of tombstone, the list was too long to write, and there was no way to write it.

With the official consortium of the imperial court, it is equivalent to the imperial court directly controlling a part of the resources and directly controlling a large number of people.

The management and use of these resources and populations does not need to be mediated by the proprietors.

When the proprietors disobeyed the management, or got in the way, the imperial court could use the government-run consortium to confront them.

The imperial court enacted a law requiring the implementation of a ten-hour work week, which could be implemented first by the government-run consortium under its direct management.

The relatively favorable working conditions and treatment of the government-run consortium will attract workers from the private sector.

In turn, the private proprietors were forced to offer better conditions to retain the workers.

Just like the Ming Emperor used the bureaucratic system to check and balance each other with the imperial consortium.

The most important thing is that the existence of government-run consortia has created a competitive relationship with private capital.

The members of the bureaucracy include members of the government-run consortium.

As a result, the existence of government-run consortia has become an obstacle to the reconciliation between the bureaucracy and private capital.

The fact that the bureaucracy is mostly government-run conglomerates is the basis for the bureaucracy not to completely fall to the owners.

A dam that restricts private proprietors from controlling more social resources.

Regardless of the bureaucracy's considerations, it is essential to protect the most basic interests of the workers at the bottom.

The existence of government-run consortia provides them with the possibility to make choices.

Without the government-run consortia directly controlled by the imperial court as a counterweight force, it would be as difficult for the imperial court to require manufacturers to directly protect the interests of laborers as it would be for the ancient emperors to require scholars and doctors to protect the interests of farmers.

They can say great things, but most likely no one will actually do it.