prosperous age

It was not only Zhang Juzheng who killed He Xinyin, but also the feudal ethics.

He Xinyin's thoughts were already seen as out of line at that time. Abandoning the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues was tantamount to shaking the foundation of the feudal dynasty.

Just as Zhang Juzheng said, even if he could find evidence and produce witnesses and physical evidence, what difference would it make? He, Zhang Juzheng, could do it too.

As for witnesses and physical evidence, it actually only depends on the thoughts of the superior. If the superior says it is valid, it is valid. Even if it is false, it can be made true.

Wei Guangde didn't know whether He Xinyin's case had been reported to the authorities or the palace, but he knew he couldn't say anything more.

So that night, Wei Guangde summoned officials from Jiangxi in the capital and explained to them in detail the real cause of He Xinyin's death.

For officials who have already entered the officialdom, they often ignore news from outside. As they wander in the officialdom, they pay more attention to changes in the political situation.

Although he was shocked by the news brought by Wei Guangde, he also knew that the best way was to deal with it calmly.

"When I get back, I'll write to my classmates and ask them to stop investigating."

"It's best not to make this matter public. It's best to just let it go."

They are not ignorant people. If they continue to investigate, if there is someone from the palace behind it, their future career will be over.

Between justice and official career, everyone in the room rationally chose official career, even Tan Lun who was ready to retire at any time.

"Write letters to people you know, asking them to appease He Xinyin's group of students and tell them to stop making trouble. If the situation gets out of hand, it might not be good for their teacher."

Now let’s just assume that He Xinyin died of illness in prison and was not brought to trial. Naturally, he cannot be involved in the White Lotus Sect or Zeng Guang case.

Wang Zhiyuan was clearly aware of the interests involved.

However, if the matter really got out of hand, Wang Zhiyuan was determined to portray He Xinyin as a member of the White Lotus Sect, and I'm afraid the Liang family in Yongfeng would not have peace.

After all, there was a White Lotus sect member in the clan, and the White Lotus sect was a sect that was expressly banned by the Ming Dynasty court and was called a cult.

"Does the letter mention this?"

Zhou Shouyu asked, he meant that He Xinyin's thoughts might touch upon the imperial power, so if the matter really got out of hand, He Xinyin's death might not get a chance to be vindicated.

"Just talk about the Zeng Guang case and ask them not to involve He Xinyin and the White Lotus Sect. I think they should know the seriousness of the matter."

Wei Guangde sighed.

"Alright."

Zhou Shouyu nodded and agreed.

As for the other people in the room, they all remained silent.

In fact, they were not familiar with He Xinyin. They only knew that he was a disciple of the School of Mind, and his thoughts were definitely different from those of the School of Principle.

However, they really didn't know that He Xinyin's thoughts were so dangerous. As it involved issues of moral principles, this matter could not be guaranteed.

"Oh, by the way, Brother Zili and Ren Zhi are here too. The cabinet has approved the reform of the post office system, and we are just waiting for your memorials to be submitted.

I wonder when the memorial will be released?"

Lao Kan has been discussing the general framework with the Ministry of War these days. Although every detail does not need to be discussed in detail, there must be an overall plan, including how letters should be classified and delivered.

Lao Kan thought that if he could receive the mail, he should classify it. For example, if it was sent to Lin County, he could just send it directly via post.

However, the Ministry of War felt that the workload of the post stations would be a bit heavy. It was okay for small places, but as the mail increased in large places, the original number of people might not be enough to handle the work.

Therefore, their idea was to assign special personnel to sort the mail in the provincial capitals, and then send it to the provincial post stations to be delivered to various places. Although it was a bit troublesome, it was simple.

The most important thing is that the Ministry of War can use this to clearly know how many letters have been mailed and calculate the income brought by mailing.

If the post stations below were allowed to deliver the mail themselves, one can imagine how much of the mail revenue would be embezzled.

Although the charge for a single email is not much, just a few cents, it is a different story if the quantity is large.

Those in power now, whether it is Zhang Juzheng or Wei Guangde, are both practical officials.

For the idea proposed below, if it is just a thought, it will be a big deduction.

Only by discovering and solving problems can officials demonstrate their ability to do their work.

Although it is not required to be comprehensive, at least the general solution framework must be clearly stated so that people can have a general idea in their minds by reading the document as to whether this thing can be done and whether it can be accomplished.

Therefore, the memorials submitted by the Censorate and the Ministry of War could not simply state that they wanted the post office to not only deliver official documents, but also facilitate the people by opening up the function of private letter delivery. They had to write out the entire idea.

"This is still under discussion and will be submitted in the next few days."

Lao Kan said with a little embarrassment that many things are like this. When you think about it, you think the solution is simple, but when you really go deep into it, you will find that there are many problems that need to be solved one by one.

Wei Guangde had already proposed some ideas before. Lao Kan felt that he could find solutions to the remaining problems through discussions with the Ministry of War, so naturally he did not want to get solutions from Wei Guangde again.

"Well, that's good. Let's do it as soon as possible. The Prime Minister and Ziwei both hope to start this people-friendly policy at the beginning of the new year."

Wei Guangde said.

Because of the land survey and the policy of banning academies, Zhang Juzheng is now somewhat notorious in the outside world.

Of course, this was not limited to the literati, and Zhang Siwei, who was regarded as a follower of Zhang Juzheng, did not have an easy time either.

Now, they all need to gain some reputation among the people.

Although public opinion is controlled by the literati and the common people are ignorant, especially the people in the countryside, who only listen to what the gentry say, doing something practical can still win the people's favor.

Don't think that everyone was flattering Zhang Juzheng's new policies in front of him, shamelessly touting them as good policies that benefit the country and the people. Zhang Juzheng also had his own information channels and knew that surveying the land, especially discovering hidden land, would be cursed by the gentry.

In fact, measuring the land is only one step. After the numbers are calculated, the taxes paid in previous years must be checked.

Although the investigation was only conducted back three years, and all previous tax evasion was written off, the tax evasion for these three years still made the gentry feel distressed.

"Shandai, Xu Qiaoan has led the Denglai Navy back to Shandong. The new warships built by the Ministry of Industry have been sent there. According to the previous discussion, the division has been made with the Shandong Military Commission."

When Tan Lun said this, he was actually reminding Wei Guangde that the East China Sea Navy had already begun substantive construction and asked when the court planned to announce this to the public.

"Have you started preparing?"

Wei Guangde was stunned and forgot about the preparations made by the East China Sea Navy.

"The Shandong Military Commissioner is eager for us to split up the navy so that they can save a lot of money.

When the Ministry of War sent a letter, the Shandong Provincial Military Commissioner only had a brief contact with the Provincial Administration Commissioner and replied that he agreed. "

Tan Lun shook his head and smiled bitterly, "But if this happens, Shandong will no longer be responsible for the navy's expenses in the future.

In the northern provinces, there is no custom of allocating silver to the navy. They have not encountered Japanese invasions, so they don’t care about it at all.”

Wei Guangde nodded. Although the Japanese pirates had once targeted Huai'an in Southern Zhili and Weihai in Shandong, they were just small groups of pirates who suffered losses in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas and then fled to the north.

However, seeing that the results were not very good, they decisively retreated to the south. After all, the southern part of the Ming Dynasty had a developed maritime trade, which had been formed since the Southern Song Dynasty, and the local gentry were also willing to invest and take risks in maritime trade.

Northern merchants, however, did not have such an idea. Although they also transported goods by sea, most of them were short-distance transportation and they did not reap the benefits of maritime trade.

Since they did not reap the benefits and enjoy the profits from maritime trade, they naturally would not buy property along the coast. The only things the Japanese pirates could rob when they landed were the poor villages.

The benefits were not proportional to the risks, so after a few times they stopped going north because they felt the north was too poor.

It was unlike several provinces in the south, which were all frightened by the Japanese pirates, and even had their counties destroyed and governments seized. Who could bear the blame from the imperial court?

Even now, with the South China Sea Navy in the south and the Japanese pirates basically wiped out, the southern provinces are still willing to allocate a certain amount of money to the South China Sea Navy every year. The purpose is to ensure the existence of the navy and prevent the Japanese pirates from rising again.

Of course, the amount of money allocated each year is gradually decreasing, and may even disappear in some future year.

At that time, the navy’s expenses would have to be funded by the court and themselves.

Fortunately, Wei Guangde had already secured the rights to Dongfan Island, Luzon and Jiugang for the South China Sea Navy. The income from these three places plus the imperial salary were enough for the South China Sea Navy to maintain its current level.

If not, how could Wei Guangde separate a West China Sea Fleet from the South China Sea Fleet and provide warships to the East China Sea Fleet?

It can be said that Wei Guangde treated the South China Sea Navy like his own sons and raised them too well and fattened them up.

"In addition to the dozens of warships transferred by the South China Sea Fleet, how many new warships did the Ministry of Industry build?"

Wei Guangde asked.

In fact, compared with the new gunboats of the Ming Dynasty, the old-style Fujian ships are no longer advanced enough.

However, many of them had been built earlier, and it was impossible to modify them, as they were more expensive than building new warships.

This type of warship would actually be a good choice to be kept in the navy as a transport ship.

In fact, in this era, the so-called battle line tactics had not yet been formed, so the navy did not have very high requirements for gunboats.

At least this is the case in the waters of East Asia.

The navies of Western countries, which have mastered advanced warship technology, still have no advantage here.

"By the way, Shandai, you said before that it should be named the East China Sea Navy, but the military department's atlas says it's the Great Ming Sea, so someone suggested that it should be called the Great Ming Sea Navy instead of the East China Sea Navy."

Tan Lun said again.

"It's just a name, not worth arguing about."

Wei Guangde shook his head and smiled, "Brother Zili knows that after the East China Sea Navy is completed, the Ming Dynasty will have the East China Sea Navy and the South China Sea Navy. There is really no need to call the East China Sea Navy the Ming Dynasty Navy, which is a bit awkward."

Wei Guangde understood the proposal of the man from the Ministry of War. In fact, people in this era were quite serious about these things.

The so-called Daming Sea is actually the East China Sea.

The East China Sea in later times is located to the east of Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian, and to the west of China's Taiwan Island and Japan's Ryukyu Islands; it connects with the Yellow Sea in the northwest; it communicates with the Korea Strait in the northeast through a line connecting the eastern tip of South Korea's Jeju Island to Cape Nomaki in Kyushu, Japan, and is connected to the South China Sea in the south through the Taiwan Strait.

Since ancient times until the Yuan Dynasty, China called this sea area the East China Sea.

In the "Kunyu Wanguo Quantu" created in the middle and late Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, this sea was called the Daming Sea.

After the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the Chinese continent gradually became known as the Middle Earth, and this sea area was gradually called the East China Sea.

In modern times, neighboring countries have their own descriptions: China calls it the East China Sea, Korea calls it the South China Sea, the Ryukyu Shang clan calls it the Ryukyu Sea, and Japan calls it the Satsuma Sea.

All major international media today refer to this sea area as the East China Sea.

However, the nautical chart of the Zhifangsi of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty at that time was actually consistent with the markings in the "Kunyu Wanguo Quantu", that is, the sea area north of Taiwan to Korea and Japan was all the sea of ​​the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, the waters later called Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea were considered as one in the Ming Dynasty at that time and were not listed separately.

The name of Bohai Sea actually has a long history. There are records of Bohai Sea in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, but at that time Bohai Sea was called "Bohai Sea".

Su Qin once said: There is Bohai to the north of Qi.

Tian Ken once said: Qi is limited by the Zhuo River in the west and has the advantage of Bohai Sea in the north.

Bohai Sea is also called "Shaohai". "Han Feizi" records: Duke Jing of Qi traveled to Shaohai Sea.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, the name "Bohai" has been used among the people until now.

The Yellow Sea first appeared in official records in Qing Dynasty documents, but in the late Qing Dynasty, the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea were collectively referred to as the Beiyang.

Therefore, Wei Guangde did not limit the East China Sea Navy to the East China Sea as later generations marked, but established the so-called North China Sea Navy in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea. He was setting his sights on the Whale Sea north of the Korean Peninsula, that is, the Sea of ​​Japan.

In fact, during the Yuan Dynasty, the area was named because there were a large number of whale activities and whaling fleets in the sea.

China stopped whaling in the 1980s, but in the early Ming Dynasty, coastal fishermen had already taken the initiative to hunt whales. Before that, they mostly shared stranded whales.

Of course, Wei Guangde was eager to name the Whale Sea the North Sea, and he actually had his own purpose, because at that time the Ministry of War seemed to have known that this sea area was called the Sea of ​​Japan by Japan and Western merchants.

Confucius in the Pre-Qin Dynasty, The Analects of Confucius, Zilu: "If the name is not right, then the words will not flow; if the words are not flowing, then the things will not be accomplished."

The principle of "name and reality should be consistent" in Confucianism is not only a requirement for personal cultivation, but also the foundation of social order.

Taking advantage of Ming's international influence at this time and seizing the naming rights would be more conducive to Ming's control over the sea area and would well demonstrate Ming's rights and interests in the ocean.

In later generations, it was a symbol of ancient China's sovereignty over the waters.

In fact, in the "Kunyu Wanguo Quantu" compiled thirty years later, the "North Sea" was not named "Whale Sea" according to the Yuan system, but was marked as "Sea of ​​Japan".

Although Wei Guangde didn't know all this, he still paid great attention to the point of legitimacy. It was only during these years in the Ming Dynasty that he understood these things.

The sooner the North Sea is recorded in the literature, at least it will not leave hidden dangers for future generations.

If, future generations of Chinese could still keep the vast land in the north.

“As for the Daming Sea they are talking about, in fact, the four seas of the East, South, West, and North are all the oceans of our Daming, and naturally they are all Daming Seas.

Go back and tell Yuegang and Jiugang that they must say this when doing business with the barbarians.

The oceans named by our Great Ming are all our Great Ming seas, they all belong to our Great Ming, and no more weird names are allowed."

Wei Guangde said righteously.

"That's easy. I'll ask the Ministry of War to issue a written order tomorrow.

As for the connection with the old port, the carriage company has already set up carriages and horse stations, taking the northern route through Xi'an, Luzhou to Kunming, and then entering Myanmar's Bago and into the sea.

In this way, within a month and a half, the documents can be delivered to the old port. "

Tan Lun laughed. (End of this chapter)