prosperous age

When Wei Guangde returned to the capital from Jiangnan, he arranged for someone to deliver a memorial directly to the palace before attending the banquet.

In essence, it was a brief account of what he had done during this trip south, a summary of the gains and losses, and finally an announcement to the palace that Old Wei had returned.

This morning, while Wei Guangde was still eating breakfast, an imperial edict arrived from the palace.

It doesn't mean much. Grand Secretary Wei has worked hard. He can rest at home for three days before returning to court to take up his post.

The emperor granted him three days' leave, for which Wei Guangde was naturally extremely grateful.

Before airplanes and high-speed trains became widespread, long-distance travel meant choosing the old-fashioned green trains, and a three- to five-day journey would be exhausting.

This was during the Ming Dynasty, and the speed was even slower with the help of boats and carriages.

The whole trip was exhausting.

Remember when Wei Guangde was promoted by chance? It was because Chen Jin, the top scholar of the Kui Chou examination who should have been promoted, fell ill on his way to his fiefdom, which delayed the ceremony and caused him to lose his promotion. Soon after, he was exiled from the Hanlin Academy and appointed as a judge in Huizhou.

In fact, in this era, it is very common for things to go wrong on the road, and you can easily fall ill if you are not careful.

However, the cabinet still sent a note, arranging a cabinet meeting the day after tomorrow to discuss the news brought back by the mission to Europe.

The mission is still adrift at sea, but it should be arriving soon.

According to the reported plan, they would depart from Pegu, first go to Palembang, then to Turtle City, and finally resupply in Songjiang Prefecture before heading straight to Tianjin.

Officials in the Ming Dynasty are now accustomed to traveling by water, and with the advent of sea transport, they naturally choose sea transport as their first option.

Of course, this is on the premise that you can get on a boat.

The imperial court, of course, would also take into account the health of its officials.

For example, officials on diplomatic missions must be able to avoid seasickness.

Otherwise, a trip to Europe would not be an envoy's mission, but a death sentence.

In the past, the imperial court had not paid attention to this point, and the Ministry of Rites' Bureau of Personnel Affairs did not conduct a special investigation of pedestrians.

It was Wei Guangde who came up with the idea that all newly appointed Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) entering the Ministry of Personnel must be able to travel by boat or ride a horse; this was a basic requirement.

In fact, the position of the Imperial Envoy was not a good job. Although the Imperial Envoys of the Ming Dynasty were arrogant and high-ranking, their official rank was what it was, and they were just there to fill positions and assist the chief and deputy envoys.

Wei Guangde rested at home for three days. On the morning of the fourth day, he dressed neatly with the help of his maids, went out, and entered the palace in a sedan chair.

Wei Guangde now spends most of his time working in the cabinet, only going to the Wenhua Hall to lecture the emperor on scriptures one day a month, and taking two days off.

For him, who now works five days a week, he has long been accustomed to this kind of non-stop work life.

However, the messages brought back by the European mission included information about the current state of European society, including their custom of calculating time on a weekly basis and having a seven-day weekend.

Well, seeing that Europe already has the concept of weekends, Wei Guangde couldn't help but feel a little tempted.

If the Ming Dynasty could also implement this policy, with a one-day rest after every six days of work, being an official would actually be quite comfortable.

This is much better than having only two days off per month now; it doubles the number of rest days.

Wei Guangde didn't know what to say today, and Shen Shixing didn't talk much about the memorial that day either.

However, Wei Guangde had already made up his mind to try and see if he could also have a weekend life in the Ming Dynasty.

"Greetings, Grand Secretary Wei."

At the entrance of the cabinet, the attendant on duty saw Wei Guangde approaching and hurriedly bowed.

Wei Guangde waved his hand to indicate that he should not stand on ceremony, and then picked up his pen to sign in before entering the room.

"Grand Secretary Wei, the three Grand Secretaries have already gone to the Grand Secretary's office and said they would like to invite you over once you arrive."

After straightening up, the attendant spoke gently to Wei Guangde.

"They've all arrived?"

Wei Guangde was somewhat surprised; he hadn't been late today, but they had already arrived.

"The Grand Secretary just went in too."

The secretary replied.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng's sedan chair had just left before Wei Guangde's sedan chair landed.

If he looked back after getting out of the sedan chair, he could see Zhang Juzheng's sedan chair at the edge of the square.

When Wei Guangde entered the Grand Secretary's office, the first thing he saw was Zhang Juzheng, followed by Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing.

When Wei Guangde walked to the door, the three people inside heard the clerk's bow and got up to greet him.

The Grand Secretary naturally walked at the front, and naturally attracted the most attention.

"Good job, Shan Dai. This job is not easy, and you have done so much."

Before Wei Guangde could speak, Zhang Juzheng said cheerfully.

"Hey, it's just for the country, nothing to brag about."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the four of them went back inside and sat down.

The clerk brought tea and then immediately left.

"We've seen the report you submitted a couple of days ago, and the Ministry of War has also calculated it. In total, eleven provincial governors and provincial governors' battalions in the Jiangnan region have been abolished."

The remaining portion was converted into patrol battalions along the river to prepare for flood control work, while others were reassigned to important prefectural cities to maintain city defenses.

However, does such a city defense battalion conflict with the duties of local garrison posts?

After sitting down, Zhang Juzheng got straight to the point. There were many things to discuss this morning, and he also had to deal with the memorials from yesterday and today. There was no time to waste.

"Most of the garrisons in the interior were established during the Hongwu and Yongle reigns. They were changed for various reasons afterward, but remained largely the same."

However, the situation varies from place to place now. In some places that were once important, it is no longer necessary to continue to station guard posts. In my memorial, I also mentioned several guard posts, involving one guard post and two thousand-household posts, which were actually unnecessary to retain.”

Many of the systems of the Ming Dynasty had been in place for over two hundred years and were now outdated. However, everyone adhered to the principle of "it's better to do nothing than to do something wrong," turning a blind eye as long as it didn't affect their own interests, and thus letting things drag on.

During this investigation of the recruiting camps in Jiangnan, Wei Guangde noticed that many of the garrisons were no longer necessary to continue existing.

Of course, since it was a secure job provided by the imperial court, Wei Guangde couldn't let anyone take it away.

As someone from a military family, he couldn't possibly do such a thing.

"Let the Ministry of War thoroughly clean up the local garrisons and military posts, abolishing those that should be abolished and merging those that should be merged."

Many military outposts were already understaffed, so it was a good opportunity to fill the gaps with the remaining personnel from those outsourced.

The goal is not to eliminate military households, but to reassign those laid off to other understaffed garrisons.

Of course, the number of government troops on the surface may decrease.

In reality, the million-strong army on the imperial court's books is probably only 60-70% of what it appears to be, since that's how "empty salaries" are obtained.

Wei Guangde's proposed abolition was merely a way to eliminate some empty salaries.

This proposal, of course, does not affect the interests of the other cabinet ministers, who don't really have much to say.

Zhang Juzheng had already planned that Wei Guangde would be in charge of this matter, with the Ministry of War taking the lead. Once they came up with the procedures, the cabinet would simply approve them.

If something goes wrong, the Ministry of War will naturally bear the responsibility, and Wei Guangde will also be held accountable, but it will have no impact on him whatsoever.

"Alright, you can contact the Ministry of War to come up with a plan, and then we can discuss it further." Actually, for such specialized matters, the Six Ministries usually make the decisions, and the Cabinet just goes through the motions.

Zhang Juzheng's statement was naturally reasonable.

Wei Guangde nodded. Who told him to report it in a moment of impulsiveness? The abolition of the garrisons was equivalent to reducing a number of powerful military positions, which would inevitably offend some people.

However, these were all things that couldn't be discussed openly, and he didn't care.

Next, Wei Guangde recounted everything he had seen and heard in Songjiang Prefecture, mentioning that Songjiang Prefecture was now prosperous due to its commerce. The people in the room all smiled.

They were among the first to know the news, and each of them had their families contribute some money to the cause.

The benefits are all real and tangible.

"Although the Ministry of Works had previously built what was arguably the largest port on the coast, Shanghai Port can now only accommodate about thirty seagoing vessels."

It's usually enough, but because inland waterway merchant ships also anchor there, the berths are often occupied, so occasionally there are seagoing vessels queuing up to wait to dock.

Therefore, I have instructed Hu Junde to select a location west of Shanghai Port, near the mouth of the Yangtze River, to build an inland river port.

In this way, the inner and outer ports of Matsue Prefecture were opened to the outside world. However, because of the close proximity, a huge cargo yard could even be built between the two ports, which would not increase freight costs too much.

Wei Guangde continued.

"This method is feasible. Building an inland river port is a good idea to prevent merchants from smuggling goods."

Shen Shixing spoke up.

The biggest bad habit of merchants is speculation. They like to evade taxes. If they secretly negotiate with foreign merchants, they can use inland river cargo ships to transport goods to Shanghai Port, and then directly transfer them to foreign ships after they are unloaded.

If bribery of port inspectors continues, the entire order of Shanghai Port will likely descend into chaos.

The impact was not limited to the imperial court's tax revenue; it also dragged a large number of people down with it. For Zhang Juzheng, who had already begun to rectify official corruption, this was certainly not a good thing.

Of course, Wei Guangde wouldn't say that a lot of land inside and outside Shanghai Port belongs to him, and that no matter where the inland port is expanded, the warehouses will definitely be built on his land.

Well, or rather, his cargo yard will directly benefit from this port expansion.

No one bothered to inquire about these things, nor did they want to pay much attention to them.

As long as the policy is good, that's fine.

"We'll talk about the Nanjing matter later; it's actually related to the delegation's memorial."

After Wei Guangde talked about the reform of the Ministry of War triggered by the Hangzhou mutiny and the situation in Songjiang Prefecture, he had nothing more to say.

However, Zhang Siwei still brought up Nanjing, since Wei Guangde had stayed in Nanjing for half a month and should have had a lot to say.

However, Wei Guangde asked that we first bring out the main point of today, namely the memorial from the European mission, and said that there were some connections between them.

"Very well, the mission to the Western Ocean sent back a memorial from Pegu. The main point is that they have successfully completed the task assigned by the court and rescued a total of eleven Ming people in Portugal. They have now regained their freedom."

In addition, seventeen people were registered in Spain; they were Ming people who had been abducted by the Portuguese.

Most of these people no longer remember where they are from because they were too young at the time.

The mission has already returned home with their memories and portraits, which will first be distributed to Fujian and Guangdong provinces to help locate their relatives.

Shen Shixing received the memorial and then slowly began to introduce the mission's achievements.

Good news! The remaining three smiled, stroked their beards, and nodded.

"In addition, they plan to send a letter to all maritime merchants in Bago and Palembang, instructing them to investigate whether Portuguese people are enslaving Chinese people and to find out their identities when conducting business."

Shen Shixing continued.

Who would believe that the Portuguese abducted more than twenty people back then?

Many of them are probably no longer alive, and the number of Han Chinese enslaved in Portuguese colonies likely far exceeded the number in the Portuguese colonies.

The mission focused on the Spanish and Portuguese, and appointed a Ming official as a clerk in each country to record the situation of the Ming people in those countries.

Since the letters of credence between the two countries have not been formally confirmed, the Ming Dynasty has no immediate plans to send ambassadors to European countries. Therefore, it can only temporarily appoint the most prestigious and knowledgeable people among the locals as officials.

In addition, the mission traveled extensively to understand the situation in various European countries.

As for the situation in the Portuguese colonies, although the Portuguese government promised to investigate, the Ming Dynasty would not simply let them do it. Instead, it mobilized Ming Dynasty merchants to help gather information.

Soon, Shen Shixing mentioned in the report that they had met with Pope Gregory XIII, including the Pope's desire for the Ming Dynasty to send missionaries to the country to spread Christianity.

“I asked about this matter when I was in Songjiang. Indeed, missionaries came to Shanghai Port in Songjiang Prefecture.”

However, local officials, suspecting his motives, confined him to the port area and prohibited him from leaving.

Wei Guangde spoke up.

"Grand Secretary Wei, their pope now wants us to run their missionary work."

Shen Shixing spoke up.

“I know, but I haven’t decided yet whether to allow them to preach.”

Wei Guangde replied, and then looked at Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng did not press further, but instead glanced at Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing.

Both of them shook their heads slightly, clearly indicating that neither of them intended to offer an opinion.

"Then let's hold off for now and discuss it again after the facts are verified."

Thus, the matter of Gregory XIII requesting permission from the Ming Dynasty to preach Christianity was thus spectacularly shelved.

Perhaps, if none of the people here remember this, then no one will discuss this matter anymore.

At that time in Europe, the Pope was almost an emperor, if not an emperor.

His words and actions had a tremendous influence on European countries of that era, and no monarch could ignore them.

However, this is the Ming Dynasty, and it seems that apart from the emperor, no one else has this influence.

If there is one, it must be a dead person.

Shen Shixing continued, carefully recounting the key points reported by the mission, and quickly moved on to the investigation findings of the societies in various European countries.

This topic should have been glossed over, but Wei Guangde was determined to bring it up.

After Shen Shixing finished speaking, Wei Guangde asked with a smile, "So, Europeans usually calculate time in a seven-day cycle, and they rest on the first day of each cycle?"

"Uh"

Shen Shixing didn't really pay much attention, since the memorial was completed by the mission over several months on the ship and its contents were very complicated.

As for the copy from Songjiang Prefecture, it should be more accurately described as the outline of the memorial.

Shen Shixing quickly flipped through the booklet in his hand, which contained the key points he had asked people to extract.

They quickly found the relevant section, and Shen Shixing nodded and said, "Indeed, on the first day of each week, they go to church to attend religious ceremonies, so it's a day of rest; the rest of the time they have to work."

Therefore, don't be puzzled as to why capitalists in the 16th century would kindly establish a weekly rest day, because it wasn't decided by capitalists, but by religious decree.

"So, they have four or five days off a month there."

Wei Guangde said. (End of this chapter)