Walking on thin ice, treading carefully.
Zhu Jinsong now deeply understood the meaning of these idioms—conquering a kingdom was indeed easy, but facing the myriad messy problems of the entire Ming Dynasty, from top to bottom, Zhu Jinsong truly experienced the difficulty of governing.
Problems like a insufficient population could not be solved at all; they could only rely on time for the population to slowly grow. Once it reached a certain level, measures would have to be taken to curb excessively high growth rates, artificially lowering population growth to prevent resource shortages.
Perhaps some would say, if there are resource shortages, then go forth and seize them. This would not only solve the problem of resource scarcity but also consume the existing population through war, achieving two goals with one action.
However, such a theory was only feasible in theory—any war at a national level was by no means something that could be fought simply by saying so.
Especially for the current Ming court, going to war was actually a very unprofitable affair.
On the surface, war would inevitably lead to territorial expansion, allowing the Ming to possess sufficient resources, and even to calmly deal with the problem of a population explosion in the future.
But in reality, the troop movements, logistical deployments, and war mobilization before a war, as well as the post-war arrangements, pensions, and reconstruction, were all expenses.
And the country's wealth and resources were finite. Once a war occurred, it meant that a portion of resources and wealth would be consumed.
Was the country constantly developing, and were its overall resources and wealth continuously growing?
Yes, this theory was not wrong, and it could even solve part of the deficit with bonds when wealth was insufficient.
However, the country also needed to complete various constructions, whether it was the dredging of rivers, the construction and repair of bridges and roads, or the establishment of schools at various levels. All these aspects required resources and money.
War meant that people would occupy a portion of resources and wealth from other places.
This involved the concept of war potential.
Take the Qing Dynasty, for example.
When the Qing Dynasty had not yet completely ruined itself, no other country on the entire small planet dared to underestimate the Qing. Even the Dutch East India Company had to be cautious when doing anything in Batavia, for fear of angering the Qing.
Yet, the final reality proved that the Qing was just a superficial chicken; it was like a swollen fat man facing several lean men with muscles all over their bodies when confronting European countries like England at that time.
The former's physique was indeed intimidating, but the flesh on its body was very weak, unlike those seemingly thin but muscular European countries.
It was even inferior to the short and stout ones.
This was the gap in war potential between the two—when other countries were advancing in industrialization, and the Qing chose to close its borders, the war potential between them differed by countless times.
A sufficient population was one form of war potential, but war potential was not just a matter of population size.
It was precisely because of this realization that Zhu Jinsong had recently been uncharacteristically quiet, not only refraining from deploying troops everywhere but also turning his attention inward to the Ming Dynasty once again.
Of course, inciting various countries in Europe to fight was like killing two birds with one stone, a matter of taking advantage of the situation. If successful, there would be great benefits; if it failed, it would not cause much harm to the Ming.
After another period of silence, Zhu Jinsong tapped the table with his fingers and said gravely, "Let's set aside the problem of insufficient population for now. Let's talk about other issues."
Zeng Cheng immediately said, "Reporting to Your Majesty, I believe the most pressing issue that needs to be resolved now is the problem of excessive duplication in the construction of the 'Five Small Industries' and various other workshops."
Hearing Zeng Cheng's words, Zhu Jinsong felt a vein throb on his forehead—the Five Small Industries referred to small steel, small coal mines, small machinery, small cement, and small fertilizers.
In the Ming Dynasty's version of the Five Small Industries, small machinery was just starting out, and the products of small fertilizers were quite limited. The other small industries were even more so, as coal mines were not available everywhere, nor was every place suitable for iron smelting and steelmaking.
But as someone once said, even the smallest problem, when multiplied by the enormous base of 1.3 billion, would become a big problem.
The Ming Dynasty's version of the Five Small Industries was now facing a similar situation—including Liaodong, Nurgan Regional Military Commission, Jiaozhi, Burma, Siam, as well as Old Port, Lanfang, and other places, the Ming had nearly two thousand counties. Some of these counties had complete Five Small Industries, while most of the rest only had workshops with one to three small industries.
Even so, this was an astonishingly large number.
And what was even more critical was that the Ming possessed not only workshops for the Five Small Industries but also a large number of various other workshops.
For example, in Shandong Province, there was a winery in almost every county. In areas like Jiangnan and Fujian, there was a textile workshop in almost every county, and a tea-related workshop every two or three counties. In the Mongolian Regional Military Commission, canned food workshops were blooming everywhere.
Currently, all other countries on the entire small planet might not have as many workshops as the Ming Dynasty.
The leader of the Mongolian Regional Military Commission even dared to openly boast that within ten years, the canned food production of the Mongolian Regional Military Commission would surpass that of all of Europe.
Of course, such nonsense was best taken with a grain of salt—the technology for producing canned food had only been transmitted from the Ming Dynasty to Europe less than two years ago, and the canned food workshops of the Mongolian Regional Military Commission had already been producing for several years. To compare them with Europe was bullying!
However, no matter what, it was still impossible to change the fact that all sorts of workshops in the Ming Dynasty suffered from widespread duplication.
If there were an overpopulation, duplication might not be without its benefits. For example, giving the work originally done by two people to three people would not only solve the problem of job creation but also increase production capacity, which could be considered killing two birds with one stone.
However, in a situation of extreme population shortage, this problem of duplication made the severe shortage of workers even more apparent.
Despite Zhu Jinsong's internal distress, Zeng Cheng continued, "Your Majesty, I believe it is time to rectify the Five Small Industries and other workshops in various places."
Zhu Jinsong hummed and asked, "What kind of rectification does Minister Zeng propose?"
Zeng Cheng deliberated and said, "Reporting to Your Majesty, I believe that although the widespread proliferation of workshops has its advantages, it is also the root cause of the current shortage of population."
"In addition, the existence of various workshops in different regions has also led to overcapacity to some extent—for example, in the Jiangnan and Fujian regions, almost every county has a candle workshop. The production of a single province is already sufficient to meet the demand of the entire Ming Dynasty. Now that several provinces are producing candles, the price of candles has not been able to rise, and overseas countries cannot consume such a large output, so the price of candles has remained low."
"Furthermore, some places are not suitable for developing certain types of small workshops. For example, Jiangxi Province is not suitable for running canned food workshops. However, under the requirements of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue, Jiangxi Province also has a large number of canned food workshops. The canned food produced by these workshops, whether sold overseas or within the Ming Dynasty, is not as good as that from the Mongolian Regional Military Commission and the coastal provinces."
After hearing Zeng Cheng's opinion, Zhu Jinsong hummed noncommittally and then slowly tapped the table with his fingers—the waste caused by the duplication of workshops was inevitable, and a gradual merger to improve efficiency and competitiveness was also inevitable.
However, the merger of a large number of workshops actually meant the promotion of urbanization, and the promotion of urbanization would bring about a host of messy problems, such as a large number of people abandoning their fields and a large concentration of population in one place, which would in turn give rise to a host of messy problems like left-behind elderly and children, and real estate.
Were these messy problems easy to solve? No.
Could they be left unsolved? No.
Allowing the duplication of workshops to continue and maintaining the status quo? Still no.
Would it be possible to make a firm decision and start promoting the process of urbanization, sacrificing one generation for a better future? This approach was not impossible, but Zhu Jinsong was unwilling to do so.
Whether it was called hypocrisy or indecisiveness, Zhu Jinsong was truly unwilling to accept such an approach.
West of Tiexi, then further west, a handful of melon seeds would… Qu's mother was indeed a good mother, but what about the common people of the Northeast?
Moreover, the development of the Five Small Industries and the vigorous construction of various workshops in all regions was the foundation initially set by the Ming court—it was easy for the court to set the tone and easy to change it, but it could not let the common people bear everything just because the court wanted to change the tone.
However, before Zhu Jinsong could figure out how to solve the problem of duplicated workshop construction in various regions, Liu Huaiwen spoke again.
Liu Huaiwen said with a苦脸 (bitter face), "Your Majesty, many expenditures in the national treasury last year could have been saved—for example, the construction of medical clinics in various places. I wonder if it could be postponed? After all, there are already many medical clinics in the private sector, and the common people are not without places to see a doctor. Now that the court is building a large number of medical clinics, isn't this snatching business from private medical clinics?"
"Regarding universities and prefectural schools, I will not say much more. But for elementary schools, community schools, and county schools, can they not be directly opened and allowed for private construction? Otherwise, with only the money in our national treasury, it is really..."
However, before Liu Huaiwen could finish, Zhu Jinsong waved his hand and said, "That is impossible."
Some loopholes could be opened, but some loopholes absolutely could not be opened.
For example, elementary schools, community schools, and county schools.
Once the floodgates were opened for private elementary schools, community schools, and county schools, those who had the ability to run them would definitely spare no expense in recruiting better teachers, and it was even possible that they would compete with the court-run community schools and county schools for teachers.
Once this situation occurred, the consequences would be obvious.
The common people would try their best to send their children to the elementary schools, community schools, and county schools established by private individuals, and later, issues like school district housing and aristocratic schools would gradually arise.
What was even more critical was that once this loophole was opened, those insatiable capitalists would try to extend their reach elsewhere.
For example, to prefectural schools and universities, and then gradually to the imperial court.
For example, extending to matters concerning people's livelihoods.
He Shen, a great official, once said a famous quote: "To save the people, first save the officials." He needed those officials to act on his behalf—this was a thorough fallacy, because the Pixiu were never satisfied; they would only try to eat more.
For example, twenty-something hours of cold chain transportation for vegetables, and they rotted...
Not enough to feed them?
No, they were fed enough, but they were never satisfied, and they were never content. This was the fundamental problem.
It was precisely because of this that Zhu Jinsong could not open these loopholes.
This was the same for medical clinics and other similar facilities.
The Ming court was now spending a lot of money to establish medical clinics. On the surface, it appeared to be competing with private medical clinics for business, which was essentially "competing with the people for profit." However, without this competition, the state of those medical clinics would depend solely on their conscience.
For example, a highly skilled doctor, as his reputation grew, would his consultation fees increase? Would high-ranking officials, nobles, and wealthy merchants monopolize that doctor's medical resources?
Then, what about the common people?
Therefore, matters concerning people's livelihoods, such as education, healthcare, transportation, and infrastructure, could only be firmly controlled by the government. This did not mean completely prohibiting private participation, but rather that private participation could only serve as a supplement and assistance, not as the main force.
This was essentially the same problem as the duplication of the Five Small Industries and various workshops.
How to solve this problem was a typical distinction between the capitalistic and great imperial court models—like the Song Dynasty, where all purchasable projects were auctioned off, even tax revenue could be auctioned off. This was the path of a small court and great capital. Like the current Ming Dynasty, where matters concerning people's livelihoods were held in its hands, this was the great imperial court model.
The difference between the two models could be seen in the Qing Dynasty and Ukraine.
For example, in the twenty years before its demise, the Qing could still have Zuo Zongtang lift his coffin to enter Xinjiang, and in the year before its demise, it could have contained the plague in the Northeast, while the officials and soldiers of Ukraine were actually defeated, and most countries on the small planet were repeatedly ravaged by a large-scale influenza.
These were the different outcomes brought about by different paths.