The Three Kingdoms began with island farming

Chapter 523: People’s Strength is Limited
Tian Ze has always attached great importance to the various schools of thought.

Confucianism is the ideological root of the Chinese nation. No matter how many problems it has, its contributions cannot be erased. Ideas such as great unification have always been the foundation for the Han people's prosperity.

Especially after Tian Ze is ready to go abroad, the role of Confucianism will be highlighted again. When it comes to education, assimilation, and stability, Confucianism is undoubtedly the best choice.

Taoists and Mohists were born scientists and engineers, and were crucial to the development of productivity and scientific and technological progress of the Great Qi.

Moreover, some of its advanced ideas have many similarities with the future social process.

The same is true for the other hundreds of schools, which are shining in various fields.

Tian Ze had the confidence to swallow up the Kushan and Sindhu lands and expand the territory of Da Qi to more than three times that of Da Han. One of his biggest confidences was the existence of the Hundred Schools.

"It's a pity that the construction of railways does not yet meet the conditions for full-scale promotion." Tian Ze sighed.

The productivity of this era is ultimately limited.

Even if Tian Ze had directly taken over the agricultural sector, industrial development would not be so easy to promote.

The problem of iron smelting output alone has not yet been solved.

Iron was very valuable at that time, so laying railways was not possible at all.

After all, it is impossible for Tian Ze to arrange people to watch every section of railway every day.

With such huge profits, some people would take risks. If a section of the track is removed, the loss would be immeasurable.

Therefore, nowadays, railways can only be built in the territory of Mohism as pilot projects, because Mohism has no shortage of iron.

"The key is still the issue of manpower." Chen Gong looked at Tian Ze dimly.

I don’t know whether I should be thankful or sad to have such a Majesty.

Nowadays, almost everyone in the world has reached a consensus that Tian Ze is destined to surpass the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor Wu in achievements.

His current achievements alone are enough to be on par with the two of them.

However, Tian Ze also has a problem that is the same as the other two, or even more serious than the other two.

That's because there are too many things I want to do!

It's just one generation, but it seems like it has to accomplish things that can only be accomplished by several generations.

Development of the Northeast Plain, construction of water networks, assimilation of grasslands, revival of Guanzhong...

Any one of these would be a task that would require at least one generation or even several generations to complete in other dynasties.

But in Tian Ze's hands, all these tasks were carried out at the same time.

Although he relied on a large number of slaves and sufficient supply of money, food and materials, he did not arouse the wrath of heaven or the resentment of the people, and did not make the same mistakes as Qin Shihuang and Emperor Yang of Sui.

However, the current situation in Da Qi is still an extreme shortage of manpower.

There are too many things to do. Even if the salary and food are sufficient, it is impossible to split a person in half.

Since the blast furnace iron-making technology has become relatively mature, Da Qi should theoretically have no shortage of ordinary steel.

The reason for the "shortage" of steel is not technology, but population.

There weren't enough factories and craftsmen, and there was a shortage of people everywhere.

Chen Gong, Tian Ze's money bag, has a headache every day about the problems of manpower and supplies.

The latter only had some problems for a short period of time, and they have been basically resolved.

But the former has never been resolved.

In today's Da Qi, from the elderly in their sixties and seventies to children over ten years old, almost everyone has their own things to do, and there are no idle people at all.

Tian Ze listened to Chen Gong's words with a frown on his face. After a long while, he looked at Zhang Zhao and said, "Zi Bu, can the birth rate of the people be improved?"

Zhang Zhao heard this and sighed: "Your Majesty, I can't do anything."

"The population of our Great Qi is only over 50 million, and there are only over 10 million women of childbearing age. I have done my best to encourage childbirth, and have almost eliminated all their worries."

"These women of childbearing age give birth to a child almost every two years, which is already the limit."

Upon hearing this, Tian Ze scratched his head awkwardly.

What I said was indeed a bit too much, as if I was treating the people under my rule like cattle and sheep.

However, when he sat in this position, Tian Ze deeply felt that shepherding the people on behalf of the gods was not a kind of arrogance, but more of a self-comfort.

The higher the position, the more people each decision will affect, and the more people will be left out.

There are not so many perfect things in this world. Many times, when a decision benefits someone, there will inevitably be someone who suffers.

Moreover, the decisions are not necessarily completely correct. There will always be various deviations in the implementation process, and countless innocent people will suffer as a result.

Kindness does not hold power. If one does not maintain the mentality of shepherding cattle and sheep, one would have been crushed by the heavy pressure.

"Your Majesty, the people's strength is limited. Some things cannot be rushed. We have to do it slowly." Jia Xu, who rarely spoke, said in a deep voice.

As one of the earliest veterans who followed Tian Ze, Jia Xu understood that Tian Ze was not an ordinary person.

But they are all mortals and do not have the ability like Tian Ze.

Since we are mortals, we should do things within our capabilities and not expect mortals to be able to do what God can do.

It is not enough to describe the current wealth and power of the Great Qi as unprecedented. In Jia Xu's opinion, it is even more than ten times that of the Han Dynasty at its peak.

Tian Ze laid an unbreakable foundation that was completely beyond this era.

Let me give you an inappropriate example.

Xun Yu's ability in internal affairs was top-notch in the world at that time. The output of a state under his administration was equivalent to that of a county under Tian Ze's command.

This is true even if the gap in material support is eliminated.

A sufficiently stable management system and strong enough middle and lower-level managers can easily surpass the effects that can be achieved by Xun Yu, a top talent.

However, Tianze can greatly unleash the productivity of the people, gather as much strength as possible to do great things, and create more output.

But the proportion of this output is also limited.

The theoretical output limit for ordinary people is one hundred coins.

Under Xun Yu's command, due to the middle layer of officials, aristocratic families and other powerful people, there was a lack of sufficient material support and tools, so the only thing that could be produced was probably only twenty coins.

Ten cents were to be used for his own survival, six cents were to be provided to the wealthy and powerful, two cents were to be provided to officials, and only two cents were left for Xun Yu.

And now under Tian Ze's command, with the current productivity, the people can produce sixty coins.

Thirty cents of it was used for his own living, five cents was used to support officials and to maintain the huge management system, but twenty-five cents was still left for Tian Ze.

But today, Da Qi has reached a bottleneck in the development of productivity.

It is difficult to go from twenty cents to sixty cents, but after sixty cents, every additional cent becomes extremely difficult.

Unless there is another leap forward in technology, it will be impossible to achieve the same rapid growth as before.

The people’s power has been “exploited” to a certain limit.

(End of this chapter)