prosperous age

Chapter 1166 1257 Letter from Siam
"Whom should the governor send?"

Wei Guangde raised another question: we need someone who can clean up the mess, but it is actually not easy to find such a candidate.

However, in response to the question raised by Wei Guangde, Zhang Juzheng just smiled and said: "There is no need to worry about Shandai at this time. Just let the Ministry of Personnel choose. The final candidate still needs to be reported to the cabinet for discussion.

Besides, we are just making plans now, it is too early to select and arrange officials.'

Wei Guangde also reacted when he heard it.

Although the Burmese king has been captured, Myanmar is certainly still in chaos. After the big boss is captured by Li Chengliang, who knows how many small shrimps will dream of replacing him.

Behind, Li Chengliang was still busy.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde smiled and nodded: "I am overthinking. Let the Ministry of Personnel select the officials. There is still a lot of time, so we can slowly select officials."

"That's another matter. I'll talk to Shandai about it as well."

Zhang Juzheng smiled and nodded, and continued, "Lao Kan has resigned from the post of Left Governor of Fujian. I intend to let Right Governor take over, but only to be responsible for the land reclamation. I have exchanged letters with the current Fujian Governor Pang Shangpeng, and Governor Pang is also very supportive.

This time, the land survey will be mainly carried out by the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, with the assistance of the Provincial Administration Commissioner. I would like to transfer Tan Qi to Fujian as the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, and Zhang Mao as the deputy, so that they can be mainly responsible for the land survey."

"Tan Qi, Zhang Mao."

Wei Guangde murmured in his mouth.

He knew these two people. One of them was from Sichuan and was currently the Inspector of Zhejiang. He had just investigated and dealt with the corruption case of Yangzhou prefect Wei Dongchu and Wujin county magistrate Xie Shiyan.

As for Zhang Mao, it was similar. Although it was not known why Zhang Juzheng would choose them to undertake such an important task, it must have been a well-considered decision.

Wei Guangde had originally intended to show some opposition during the land survey, so naturally he would not take the initiative to get involved.

Then, Wei Guangde nodded and said, "Brother Uncle, you can make the decision on this matter."

Although he said this lightly, Wei Guangde still kept Pang Shangpeng in mind.

This person had tried his best to please him before, expressing his full support for Yuegang and the opening of Fujian to the sea, so Wei Guangde let him take over the post of Governor of Fujian. Unexpectedly, he was also having an affair with Zhang Juzheng behind the scenes.

Although Wei Guangde would not do anything bad in the land survey in Fujian, he would definitely not allow Pang Shangpeng to be sentenced without any cost.

After the land survey in Fujian is completed, Wei Guangde plans to find someone to replace him, and then arrange for Pang Shangpeng to live in Nanjing in his old age.

Don't think that Wei Guangde is petty. Pang Shangpeng was able to become the Governor of Fujian because he, Wei Guangde, recommended him.

If no measures are taken against him, his subordinates will follow suit, contact other cabinet ministers, and sell him out in private without knowing it.

Wei Guangde did not mention Pang Shangpeng at all, but Zhang Juzheng kept smiling.

On the other side, Zhang Siwei blinked and began to re-examine the relationship between Zhang and Wei.

Then the topic changed and returned to the Ministry of Industry.

However, the Ministry of Works did not have much to say. Pan Jixun was still staying in the capital, studying how to control the Yellow River in the Ministry of Works. Once there was a result, he would naturally send a memorial.

As for the Ministry of Revenue, Zhang Juzheng has always paid attention to it, which is also the foundation for maintaining the operation of the Ming Dynasty court.

"It is already difficult to provide support at present, and we will not be able to continue if there is a flood or drought disaster in all directions.

Besides, the court needs to provide more relief for the southwest, and the Ministry of Revenue is also worried about money. "

When Zhang Juzheng mentioned the Ministry of Revenue, the smile on his face disappeared.

"It doesn't matter. There is always a way to get there. There is always a straight line from bridge to boat. Although the Burmese war cost the court a huge amount of money, if we win, we will always find a way to settle the account."

Wei Guangde already had an idea at this time, but it was not yet mature, so he naturally would not take the initiative to talk about it.

He was also weighing the pros and cons quickly at this time, thinking about whether it was feasible.

However, Zhang Juzheng misunderstood the meaning and thought that Wei Guangde was talking about the gold, silver and treasures that Li Chengliang and Yu Dayou could obtain from the Burmese capital in the war to destroy the country.

"Shan Dai, although I trust Dayou's character, with so many troops under his command, there will be no fish if it is too clean, and I think the money and goods that can be handed over to the court will also be limited.

After all, Myanmar is a wild country with poor people. If they raise an army of 300,000, they probably want to plunder property from the Ming Dynasty. How can there be so many treasures? "

The cost of an army of hundreds of thousands is enormous. After the battle, each person will be rewarded with several taels of silver, which is definitely not a small amount of money.

Even if they seized dozens of carts of property from the Burmese capital, it could not compare with the Ming Dynasty's efforts. This is also the reason why the Ming Dynasty did not easily mobilize troops in recent years.

Think about it, in the 30th year of Jiajing, Zhang Juzheng was still in the capital. Emperor Jiajing wanted to send troops north to Mongolia to take revenge, but he was still trapped by financial difficulties and the Northern Expedition had to be shelved.

Of course, the matter was actually very complicated, but Emperor Jiajing eventually gave up anyway.

The hundreds of thousands of taels of silver raised in advance eventually became the outer city wall of Beijing.

"hehe."

After hearing what Zhang Juzheng said, Wei Guangde knew that he had misunderstood.

"Why is Shandai laughing?"

Zhang Juzheng asked in surprise.

"Brother Uncle, have you forgotten what Myanmar will be like in the future?"

Wei Guangde reminded.

"Well, so what?"

Zhang Juzheng was startled and suddenly had an idea in his mind.

“The rewards for the soldiers don’t necessarily have to be gold and silver.

The lands of Burmese princes, ministers, and chieftains can be distributed to meritorious soldiers according to the price.

The imperial court intended to station troops in Burma and directly distributed ten or twenty acres of land to the soldiers.

In order to protect their own land, they will definitely not show mercy to those who dare to oppose the Ming Dynasty."

Wei Guangde said, "Besides, I heard that the inner court sends angels to Burma to purchase gems every few years, so I guess there should be a lot of gem mines there.

In the past, these mineral deposits should have belonged to the Burmese king or chieftain, but now they are sold directly to businessmen, who can pay to buy them out and operate them.

With such a large area, there must be a way to make money.

Luo Rufang was a man of good official character, as evidenced by the fact that Yunnan officials disliked him. Therefore, I believe that he was one of the few upright ministers in the court.

If this matter is handed over to him, he will definitely be able to make up for the expenses of the court."

For Wei Guangde, as long as he has the territory, why would he worry about not being able to make money?
Myanmar’s resources should be good. We can take this opportunity to directly cash in Myanmar’s mineral deposits and supplement the Ming Dynasty’s finances.

As for the expenses of the garrison in the future, they will be compensated by taxes levied by the imperial court.

I think it should be no problem for Myanmar to have two harvests a year, which means there will be an extra Huguang.

With the sea route, it would be convenient to transport the grain back. There would be no possibility of losing money by fighting a war as Zhang Juzheng imagined.

Western countries are more realistic. They fight for their own interests and know what they want before the war starts.

The result is that the tiny country becomes stronger and stronger because of the war.

On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty was always passive in every battle, and naturally suffered losses, which made the already poor Ministry of Revenue even worse.

Previously, neither the occupation of Little Ryukyu nor Luzon brought any substantial benefits to the Ming Dynasty.

Even the Ming Dynasty has to invest there first, and there will be no report in a short time.

In fact, there are rewards, such as the timber from Xiaoliuqiu, but officials of the Ming Dynasty generally do not pay much attention to these resources.

If they need wood, they can just buy it. Once the navy finds a source of wood and stops buying it, they won't think that it is actually income.

Maybe they know, but are just too lazy to say it. After all, less shopping means less money.

So in their view, it was a huge loss for the Ming army to station troops in Xiaoliuqiu and for Zhejiang and Fujian to be responsible for transporting food and fodder.

However, the officials in the capital of the Ming Dynasty never noticed that the grain matured faster as they went south.

Many officials are still talking about the fact that grain can be harvested twice a year in Guangdong, Qiongzhou and other places, believing that it is truly a great wonder in the world. However, they do not know that outside of Southeast Asia, it is not uncommon to have rice harvested three times a year.

In other words, the local natives are too lazy, so the output is not large.

In later generations, rice production in many parts of Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and India, was extremely high.

These places are also major rice producers. China needs to import some rice every year to make up for the shortfall in domestic grain production.

It can be said that the people of this era were isolated from the news.

Wei Guangde believed that once the news that Myanmar's rice could be harvested three times a year reached back home, it would surely shock the Ming Dynasty, and the court's attention would inevitably turn there.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Because as long as we have enough food, all the problems in the world will be easy to solve.

The Chinese are too hardworking, so they stubbornly believe that the output of the fields is the source of wealth.

Once you know about the rich land in the south, you can imagine what the consequences will be.

Even if you don't leave your hometown to go there, it would be okay to build a manor there, especially for those domestic grain merchants.

Wei Guangde also hoped that the Ming Dynasty could acquire more high-yield farmland to alleviate the disaster brought about by the "Little Ice Age" that would inevitably occur in this land in the next hundred years.

However, Wei Guangde was not sure whether the officials and businessmen at that time would allow the victims to obtain the food.

But there is always hope.

Wei Guangde thought so, but Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Siwei were considering what he said.

"Reward those soldiers with land, and sell the minerals to supplement the fiscal deficit."

Zhang Juzheng suddenly felt that there seemed to be some truth in it.

He didn't think of Myanmar at first, because in his inherent impression, Myanmar was a remote and poor place and few people were willing to go there.

Most officials went to Yunnan to be exiled, or to seek faster promotion, to increase their rank there, and then be transferred back soon.

Even in later generations, supporting border construction is an important condition for rapid promotion.

The Ming Dynasty actually adopted a similar approach at this time.

Otherwise, everyone would only choose to serve as an official in the wealthy area of ​​Jiangnan. Who would go to a poor place?

If you go to a lower-level county, you can often be promoted as long as you have good political achievements.

As to whether those fields had owners, that was not within Zhang Juzheng's consideration.

"Ziwei, what do you think?"

Zhang Juzheng turned and looked at Zhang Siwei and asked.

"The Vice Minister's opinion is very correct. The Ministry of Revenue cannot allocate enough silver to support the meritorious soldiers. If we can allocate land to them according to their military merits, I think it will be very popular.

However, when I need to ask Lord Wei for his attention, the soldiers must make the choice of staying in Burma or dividing the land on their own and cannot be forced to do so.

After all, they are all people who have made contributions to our Ming Dynasty, and we cannot let them down at this time."

Zhang Siwei spoke up.

"Ziwei is right, I will ask the Ministry of War to file a complaint on this matter.

However, the army is unlikely to return in the short term. The 100,000-strong army will remain in Myanmar for at least a few years and will be withdrawn only after the situation stabilizes.

Therefore, the land could be allocated to them.

If the soldiers were willing to return home at that time, they could just sell their land and bring back the money."

Wei Guangde smiled.

"They have been stationed there for so long. This is a 100,000-man army. How much food and grass will the court have to transport to support them?"

Hearing Wei Guangde say this, Zhang Siwei immediately lost his composure and immediately turned to look at Zhang Juzheng.

"In order to prevent the Annan incident from happening again, it is feasible to keep a large army in Myanmar."

However, Zhang Juzheng did not show the expression that Zhang Siwei wanted to see, and answered very calmly.

Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Siwei and said with a smile, "Ziwei, please be patient and listen to me.

Since Myanmar can mobilize an army of 300,000, it is obvious that there is enough food supply in the country. There is no need for the court to transport food from the country. The government can just collect it directly on the spot.

I estimate that it will take half a year to wipe out all the forces in Myanmar. During this half year, the Ministry of Personnel will complete the selection of officials and establish government offices at all levels in various parts of Myanmar.

With a large army stationed in Myanmar, there is no need to worry about any trouble.

After that, government offices at all levels in Myanmar could begin collecting taxes and grain locally.

Even if after the war, not much grain and tax silver can be collected in a short period of time, the difference can be temporarily supported by Yunnan and other places.

That is to say, the imperial court will continue to be short of money and grain in the southwest. If the imperial court is a little more frugal, it should be able to survive.

If there are still difficulties, then we can just ask the vassal states in Southeast Asia for supplies.

I heard that the Burmese king Mang Yinglong has been attacking everywhere, and the countries in Southeast Asia are complaining. Our Ming Dynasty punishes these rebels and saves them from the suffering of war. Shouldn't they give something in return?"

Just as Wei Guangde finished speaking, someone outside reported that the Minister of Rites Fang Fengshi wanted to see him.

"Invite him in."

Upon hearing that the people from the Ministry of Rites had arrived, Zhang Juzheng immediately spoke.

Soon, Fang Fengshi entered the duty room.

After they exchanged greetings, before Zhang Juzheng could say anything, Fang Fengshi had already taken out a document from his sleeve and handed it to Zhang Juzheng, saying, "Prime Minister, this is a letter from Guangzhou sent by express horse."

"What letter?"

Zhang Juzheng asked curiously and reached out to take the thing Fang Fengshi handed over.

"It was sent by Maha Thammaraja, the king of Siam in Southeast Asia. The letter said that several decades ago, Burma raised an army of hundreds of thousands to attack Siam, and took the Siamese royal family, civil and military officials, and tens of thousands of civilians in the city as slaves. The wealth accumulated by the Siamese capital for two hundred years was plundered.

Today, our Ming Dynasty has defeated the Burmese king and restored peace in Southeast Asia. We request that our dynasty return the Siamese people and property lost in Burma."

Fang Fengshi briefly explained the situation, and Wei Guangde showed a sneer on his face.

Zhang Juzheng had already opened the document at this time. It was written in Siamese, with the text translated by the Siyi Hall at the back.

The general meaning is similar to what Fang Fengshi said.

Zhang Juzheng glanced at Wei Guangde, then handed the document over and said, "Shandai, you can take a look too."

As Wei Guangde reached out to take the document, he asked Fang Fengshi, "Did the Ministry of Rites receive a letter from Siam ten years ago?"

"No."

Fang Fengshi immediately said, "After receiving the news, I asked someone to check. In the past ten years, Siam has nothing but documents for trade."