I'm really not doing business

Chapter 1047 The Foundation of the Celestial Empire: Punishing the Unjust

Hou Yuzhao and Zhang Xueyan, especially after the year-end audit, pointed out the enormous contribution of the Pan-Pacific Merchant Alliance to the economic stability of the Ming Dynasty, and specifically mentioned that the three governorates allowed the Great Brightness Church to freely preach.

Prior to this, the three governorates did not allow the spread of the Great Light Church, at least not ostensibly.

This incident reflects the fact that Spain, on its own soil, is gradually losing control over the Viceroyalty.

Meanwhile, the ruling classes of the three governorates were seeking new power to stabilize their rule.

What happened to Spain would inevitably happen to the Ming Dynasty, because the vast ocean hindered the Ming Dynasty's control over its overseas governorates, which was not as strong as its control over its interior, and was even weaker than its control over the Three Xuan and Six Wei regions.

When the Ming Dynasty weakened, it was almost inevitable that these governor-general offices would seek alternative paths and become independent.

The two Grand Ministers of Revenue made it clear that since the loss of the overseas governor's offices was inevitable, the focus should be on plundering profits rather than on imperial rule, as imperial rule would not yield much result anyway.

The Ming Dynasty could not prosper forever, so overseas expansion should prioritize interests over benevolence and righteousness. Even the Kingdom of Gold, over time, would naturally break apart.

This is the Ministry of Revenue's view. If the Ministry of Rites were to be consulted, they would completely disagree, because judging from the success of the Ryukyu and Luzon Governor-General's Offices, the Ming Dynasty could complete the process of "royalization" of overseas governor-general's offices.

Zhu Yijun understood their meaning, and had no intention of adjusting the current expansionist policy of the Ming Dynasty.

Seeing that His Majesty understood their unspoken message, the two ministers said nothing more. His Majesty had never been lenient in overseas expansion; the business with Japanese and barbarian tribes was even promoted by the court.

Zhang Xueyan frowned and said, "The Governors of Guangdong and Guangxi, Liu Jiwen and Wan Wenqing, the Prefect of Guangzhou, have requested the establishment of a Western Merchant Alliance, namely the alliance of the countries of Mughal Empire, Ceylon, Calicut, Hormuz, Mecca, Aden, Mogadishu, Malindo, Mozambique, and Gifu, as well as the Governor-General's Office, to form a new merchant alliance."

"I am not very optimistic about this Western merchant alliance. Due to the lack of silver, even if this alliance is formed, it will not last long."

When Emperor Yongle opened up the seas, he made seven voyages to the Western Ocean. After going around in circles, he did not find what the Ming Dynasty wanted. The silver that the Ming Dynasty urgently needed was not much in the Western Ocean. The existing trade framework was already fully meeting the needs.

According to Liu Jiwen and Wan Wenqing, the foreign slaves and Kunlun slaves were the main driving force of the Western merchant alliance, but this kind of manpower was completely uncontrollable and its output was unstable, making it unsuitable as a general equivalent for trade.

Western merchant alliances, lacking a general equivalent, were extremely short of money.

"Give it a try. If it works, great; if not, forget about it." Zhu Yijun still felt it was worth a try, as the Ming Dynasty still had room for error.

Hou Yuzhao carefully considered and said, "In order to solve this problem, Liu Jiwen and Wan Wenqing's idea is to have the Western Merchants Alliance issue Western Circulating Treasure Notes as a general equivalent to serve as a medium of exchange. In this way, the Western Circulating Treasure Notes will have a credit crisis, and like gold bonds, they will simply rot away."

"The Ministry of Revenue carefully studied this idea and determined that it was not feasible."

"Paper money is all debt, and debt is based on credit. The issuance of Western-style circulating banknotes by Guangzhou Prefecture ultimately relies on the credit of the Ming Dynasty and His Majesty. If it goes bankrupt, it will ultimately deplete the credit of the court and His Majesty."

Hou Yuzhao did not agree with the ideas of the Guangzhou Prefecture, or rather, the more conservative Ming Dynasty court could not tolerate such behavior.

Printing and issuing currency and delegating it to local government offices leads to endless troubles. That's how power is; once it's given out, taking it back is as difficult as climbing to heaven.

For example, the right to issue currency is still mainly held by the Baoyuan Bureau of the Ministry of Works, rather than the Baochao Bureau of the Ministry of Revenue. The Baoyuan Bureau prints silver coins and mints copper coins. People generally recognize silver coins and Wanli Tongbao as currency, rather than Baochao.

The Ministry of Revenue, the government office in charge of money, has no control over the money and has been seeking an opportunity to regain this power.

"It's best not to let local governments issue paper money anymore. If we really have to use paper money, we can use gold paper money." Zhu Yijun thought for a moment and said with a smile, "After all, paper money issued overseas doesn't need to be redeemed."

Zhang Xueyan and Hou Yuzhao exchanged glances. Before Wang Qian revealed the mystery, the Ministry of Revenue, like His Majesty, was very worried that the merging of Luzon Treasure Notes and Gold Treasure Notes might lead to an over-issuance of Treasure Notes and cause a collapse of trust.

Wang Qian directly exposed the mystery: the Luzon Treasure Notes had never been redeemed, which highlights the importance of local governance experience and practice.

Prior to this, the official in charge of the Ministry of Revenue had no actual experience with the specific operations of overseas paper money.

These barbarians cannot take a single ounce of silver from the Ming Dynasty. The precious notes they bring will only be exchanged for various goods to take back. Of course, once the Ming Dynasty loses its commodity advantage, the silver will also flow overseas along the shipping routes.

The two Grand Ministers were very confident that the Ming Dynasty could maintain its commodity advantage. As long as there was no chaotic war and a life-or-death struggle, the commodity advantage would definitely be maintained. Of course, when there was a life-or-death struggle, this loss of silver would be a minor matter.

Historical experience has also proven this point: during the Han Dynasty it was the Silk Road, and during the Tang and Song Dynasties it was maritime trade.

Zhu Yijun and the two Ministers discussed the matter for a long time and finally decided that the issuance of paper money next year would be increased from 12 million strings of cash to 17 million strings of cash, of which 5 million strings of cash would be used for the operation of the Western Merchants Alliance.

Of course, even if the Western Merchants Alliance failed, Zhu Yijun would not have attributed it to the incompetence of Liu Jiwen and Wan Wenqing, but rather to differences in their natural endowments.

After Zhang Xueyan left, Zhu Yijun summoned several ministers to thoroughly clarify the issues that were worth discussing in the memorial submitted the day before, and completed the performance evaluation for today. He neither withheld the evaluation nor deliberately ignored it.

At the end of the day, he picked up the miscellaneous newspapers that were placed aside and looked at them for a long time.

Li Yougong, having just taken over the position of Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, was often flustered and overwhelmed. For example, his work on organizing miscellaneous reports was not as satisfactory as Feng Bao's.

The miscellaneous newspapers submitted by Li Yougong were not carefully selected, resulting in some disorder.

There were more than a dozen miscellaneous reports here, all of which made Zhu Yijun frown. If Feng Bao had been in charge, he certainly wouldn't have presented these to the emperor.

"Li Daban, do you know why people are willing to give money to these scribes to write these unread, tasteless articles?" Zhu Yijun handed the dozen or so miscellaneous articles to Li Yougong and asked.

“He should be killed.” Li Yougong thought for a moment and gave a very direct and violent answer.

When Feng Bao handed over his work, he certainly instructed Li Yougong on how to filter these miscellaneous reports, but Li Yougong felt that His Majesty should see the ugly faces of these guys.

Li Yougong had his own style; he was completely different from Feng Bao. He was a young and promising figure who grew up during the Wanli Reforms.

Feng Daban is a bit too mild-mannered.

"You, you're too bloodthirsty." Zhu Yijun chuckled upon hearing this. Li Yougong was completely different from Feng Bao. Li Yougong came from a military background, and his aura of killing was truly intense.

The person who creates problems instead of solving them is very similar to Ling Yunyi.

Zhu Yijun took out several newspapers and said, "Let me first address the question I asked. Even though no one reads these articles, these powerful, wealthy, and influential people are still willing to give money to these unscrupulous writers. The reason is that there is demand."

"Because of the Wanli Reforms, powerful and wealthy merchants could not openly and blatantly discriminate against the poor and laborers, nor could they say those discriminatory things about the poor and laborers. They were so frustrated that they felt like they were dying."

"The only thing we can do is let these righteous and sarcastic people label the poor and laborers as villains to humiliate them."

"Little person" is a label, and similar labels include "country bumpkin," "commoner," "ant," "troublemaker," and "poor and arrogant." It follows the same logic as later terms like "loser," "lower-class," and "android."

By belittling one group of people, one can satisfy the sense of superiority of another group and gain benefits.

There are many such miscellaneous reports, and the imperial court generally doesn't bother with them. They can't possibly manage them all, firstly because there are just too many, and secondly because the imperial court isn't omnipotent and can't control everything.

These powerful and wealthy merchants, who control wealth and social resources, constantly create shills—today it's Zhang San, tomorrow it's Li Si, and the day after tomorrow it's Chen Wu—to have these shills speak on their behalf.

“So they should be killed.” Li Yougong also knew this, so his idea was that if a group was killed, no one would dare to do it.

"No, no, no, you're mistaken." Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, "The more they say things like that, the clearer the common people will understand their own class and see the true colors of these powerful and wealthy people, instead of just a maidservant feeling sorry for a young lady who lives a life of luxury."

The maid's pity for the pampered young lady was the biggest obstacle Hou Yuzhao encountered when writing "Turning Over" and "Deep Turning Over".

The exploited tenants could not understand the imperial court's decree and refused to cooperate. They even joined the clamor of the local gentry and elders in opposing the court's return of the land to these gentry and elders.

Sometimes, recognizing one's own class is not an easy task, and some people may never be able to clearly recognize their class or establish a clearer class identity in their entire lives. This was an obstacle to the Ming Dynasty's implementation of returning land to the people and reforming production relations.

Transformation also takes time.

The uglier the faces of these powerful and wealthy merchants and their hired spies, the clearer the common people see them.

"So that's how it is." Li Yougong then realized that he was too young. The Ministry of Rites' indifference to these miscellaneous reports was for ulterior motives. Li Yougong shook his head and said, "These scholars are really too bad."

His Majesty is too busy with state affairs to have the energy, and even the officials in the Ministry of Rites, who are in charge of these matters, don't have the energy for this? It wasn't until His Majesty explained that Li Yougong realized this was yet another concrete manifestation of the 'benevolence' of scholars.

"This article is quite well written. Send it to the official gazette for publication." Zhu Yijun took out a miscellaneous newspaper, annotated it himself, and handed it to Li Yougong.

The title of this newspaper article is "A Critique of the Importance of Psychological Factors." The entire article is written in classical Chinese, not colloquial language. It is full of allusions and is extremely difficult to understand, but it is actually very valuable.

The philosophy of mind holds that advanced ideas, coupled with advanced systems, are necessary for the development of advanced productive forces.

The Neo-Confucianism that followed the Wanli Reforms held the opposite view, believing that advanced productive forces could give rise to advanced systems and advanced ideas.

The author of this article was a scholar in the Hanlin Academy, who felt that such a discussion was completely meaningless.

History has shown that an overly perfect system can limit the development of productivity, which represents the error of the Neo-Confucian approach.
History has also proven that advanced productivity cannot directly give rise to advanced systems and ideas, which is why absurd things like archaeological research can occur.

The shipbuilding industry during the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty, which opened up the seas, conducted a complete archaeological survey of the Longjiang Shipyard. They even obtained the "Zheng He's Voyages by Sea" from the Yongle period from Mao Kun, which solved a series of problems such as the art of astronomy, compass diagrams, and the design and manufacture of Fujian ships.

As of the 21st year of the Wanli reign, the Ming Dynasty was still studying the old case of "Zheng He's Waterway Voyage".

Therefore, this Hanlin Academy scholar believed that the School of Mind and the School of Principle should not exist in opposition, but rather complement each other. Only systems, cultures, and ideologies that match productivity can truly move forward.

Ideas that are too advanced and do not conform to current productivity are not advanced; overly advanced productivity, without matching systems, culture, and ideas, is nothing more than a flash in the pan.

Zhu Yijun strongly agreed with this view. The theory of contradictions had gradually become a prominent school of thought. However, few scholars were willing to study the first three volumes of the theory of class. Even Zhu Yijun, who wrote the fourth volume of the theory of class, never published it.

The great debates that took place during the Wanli Reforms continued unabated.

In the twelfth month of the twenty-first year of the Wanli reign, a cold wind swept through the capital of the Ming Dynasty. This year, there was no snow in the north. Not only in the capital, but also in many other places such as Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gansu, Suiyuan, and Beizhili, there was no snow. The Ming emperor issued an edict to inspect the area and went to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests to pray for the well-being of the people.

The emperor stayed in the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests for seven days, but still failed to move Heaven. Even until the Spring Festival, the sky over the capital of the Ming Dynasty was still shrouded in cold winds, without the slightest sign of snow.

All the officials in the capital were extremely cautious, even when submitting memorials or visiting the Tonghe Palace to offer New Year's greetings, for fear of offending His Majesty, displeasing him, or suffering undeserved disaster.

His Majesty is fair and never holds grudges, but jumping out at this time is a bit provocative. It wasn't until the fourth day of the first lunar month that the cold wind suddenly stopped for two hours, and light snow began to fall. Then the light snow turned into heavy snow, which fell a full foot deep before finally stopping and the sky began to clear.

Although the snow only lasted for three days before melting away, it was more than enough. At least it froze the locust eggs to death, so even if there is a general drought next year, there will be no locust plague, which would truly mean that nothing will grow.

The heavens seemed to have become more capricious, but the damage caused by the celestial changes was not as great as people had imagined. At least the people of the capital had not heard of any widespread civil unrest.

This means that His Majesty the Emperor is on the right path, and that stopping man-made disasters is truly effective.

With a group of corrupt officials being beheaded and their heads displayed before the New Year, the local gentry and commoners of the Ming Dynasty suddenly stopped their various petty actions, after all, His Majesty really would execute them.

A head should indeed be on a neck, not carried away by wild dogs.

The Honglu Temple's Office for Foreigners welcomed a new group of envoys. The envoys from various foreign countries had already left in June, but the Western Merchant Alliance was about to be established, and a new group of envoys had arrived in the Ming Dynasty. This group of envoys mainly came from the West.

The Ministry of Rites did not intend to arrange for these envoys to have an audience, because they did not understand etiquette and needed to learn it first so as not to offend His Majesty.

Shah Mamat studied Chinese for a full year before he was able to meet His Majesty. These new foreign envoys also need to learn etiquette for a very long time.

The instructors of these foreign envoys were Li Yashi and Shahamamaiti, officials from the Ministry of Rites.

Legazí was primarily responsible for the envoys of the Governor-General's Office in Angola, Mozambique, and Goa, who spoke Latin.
Shah Mamat was in charge of messengers from Hormuz, Mecca, and Messiyat (Egypt), who spoke Persian.

After a busy day, the two leaned back in their chairs, drinking tea and resting.

“Teaching these barbarians is a very troublesome thing,” Shah Maimaiti said sincerely.

Upon hearing this, Li Yashi scoffed and shook his head, saying, "You talk as if you're not a barbarian."

“I’m different from them. I’m a nobleman. Never mind, you wouldn’t understand anyway.” Shah Maimaiti struggled a bit and waved his hand. He wanted to proclaim the nobility of his bloodline to highlight his difference, but he knew that in the Ming Dynasty, his noble status would not be recognized.

In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, they were all barbarians.

Li Yashi shook his head. He had completely integrated into life in the Ming Dynasty, but Shah Maimaiti was still himself, a nobleman.

Li Yashi laughed and said, "You, you, the kind of person you are called a rat in the gutter in the Ming Dynasty, you just can't stand seeing the poor have any good things."

“After the abolition of the slave system in the ninth year of Wanli’s reign, those powerful, wealthy, and influential people are still very dissatisfied with this decree, but they dare not express it openly, so they hire some people to spread nonsense in the official gazette.”

"You know the Yao Guangqi Index, right? It distinguishes between affordable and expensive goods. Hey, some people are quite dissatisfied with this distinction because the imperial court pays more attention to the fluctuations and impacts of affordable goods and not to the impacts of expensive goods."

"Aren't powerful and wealthy people His Majesty's subjects? That's a bit too biased."

"Songjiang Prefecture's implementation of the Ten Measures for People's Livelihood is a good thing, but many wealthy merchants are itching to cut salaries, but because of the imperial court's authority, they dare not speak out and can only squeak and complain like rats in the gutter."

Shah Mamat spread his hands, puzzled, and asked, "Why? Why would the Ming Dynasty do this? How could they do it?"

"The reason is quite simple: this land has already been evenly shaken up and down." After careful consideration, Li Yashi answered both questions.

Li Yashi continued, “Throughout China’s long history, credible historical records, rather than legends, have been repeatedly reversed and confused between the upper and lower classes. This is due to the core concept of the Ming Dynasty as a superior nation: to punish the wicked.”

"This is actually the fundamental reason why the Ming Dynasty was able to rebuild China, while Rome did not return in a flash."

"When Rome fell, the aristocracy died, and that was the end of Rome. By eliminating the aristocracy, we eliminated the elite and destroyed Rome."

"But China is not like that. A county can gather enough people to conquer the country. The flame has long been scattered across this land. Even if it is briefly plunged into darkness, it will be rekindled. This is the sacred flame that never goes out."

Shake it well, and go back several hundred years, which family didn't have a few noble people? Everyone is a descendant of noble people.

This results in a situation where there is no fundamental difference between people.

Therefore, those who become superior by relying on their ancestors' blessings or a momentary advantage will naturally incur the dissatisfaction of everyone, including wealthy merchants, powerful figures, and influential figures.

When someone is struck by lightning, people of the same social class will also be affected.

This is the fundamental reason why we can do this and why we should do it. There is no essential difference between us, even the emperors. Today they are surnamed Liu, tomorrow they are surnamed Li, and the day after tomorrow they are surnamed Zhu.

"To punish the wicked?" Shah Maimaiti asked, not particularly interested.

"To punish the wicked." Li Yashi began to speak eloquently.

Previously, Li Yashi was quite dissatisfied with the Great Light Church, or rather, with the doctrines written by Marion.

Because Marion's doctrines are full of unrealistic imaginations about the Ming Dynasty, while ignoring the fundamental and core concept of the Celestial Empire: punishing the wicked.

The revolutions of Tang and Wu, the question of whether kings and nobles were born with special privileges, the overthrow of the tyrannical Qin dynasty, the belief that Heaven is dead and the Yellow Turbans should rise, and the assertion that the stone man has only one eye—all these factors contributed to the great upheavals that shook the world, and they were all based on one logic:

Those in power are unworthy of their positions, so it is only right and proper for them to be eliminated by the united efforts of everyone in the government.

Whether it's killed or not is irrelevant; what matters is that the act of destroying a tyrannical regime itself possesses inherent righteousness.

This is the fundamental principle that has enabled China to stand tall among the nations of the world and maintain its status as a superior empire for thousands of years, giving rebellion a natural sense of righteousness.

Similarly, Ricardo greatly admired Marion.

Marie-Lauren came to understand this principle through practice and began a Huang Chao-style missionary work in France because she keenly grasped the essence of light.

Light can never be obtained by begging for charity; it can only be obtained through struggle.

As Marion famously said: Thunder can cleave the sky when it is covered by clouds.

“Very good, I didn’t understand.” Shah Maimaiti listened very carefully to Li Yashi’s sharing, and after thinking about it seriously, he gave up thinking about it.

He really couldn't understand. As a nobleman, he couldn't comprehend that eliminating nobles would allow light to fill the world.
Li Yashi stopped sharing. He has recently been writing the "Civilization" series with Hanlin Academy members and has been thinking a lot about this topic. He is looking at the question of why the Ming Dynasty was the Celestial Empire from the perspective of a barbarian.

His answer was to punish the wicked. The standard for wickedness was very simple: to make the people suffer to the point of being unable to survive.

"What do you think of this Western Merchants Alliance?" Li Yashi asked about government affairs. The formation of the Western Merchants Alliance was probably the biggest event in the court recently. Wan Wenqing, the prefect of Guangzhou, came to the capital to seek the support of the court.

Shah Maimaiti looked around and said in a low voice, "I don't think it will work, because the West doesn't have what the Ming Dynasty needs. It's not just silver; there aren't many other specialties that can support the operation of the Western Merchant Alliance."

"Why is the General Council of the Pan-Pacific Trade Alliance able to mediate conflicts and trade disputes between several governorates? It's because they all need to do business in the Ming Dynasty and have to be mindful of the Ming Dynasty's wishes. The Western Trade Alliance, on the other hand, does not have such conditions."

"To be honest, even the Mongol Empire doesn't have much that the Ming Dynasty should be concerned about."

Li Yashi wholeheartedly agreed, saying, "I share your thoughts."

In fact, this was the biggest problem facing Wan Wenqing. After arriving in Beijing, Wan Wenqing visited several ministers, but they were indifferent to this achievement. Wan Wenqing also sought out Gao Qiyu, who had established the Pan-Pacific Business Alliance.

Gao Qiyu did meet Wan Wenqing once and asked him a few questions, all of which left Wan Wenqing speechless.

At Wan Wenqing's level, what they pursue is no longer material wealth, but only power and immortality. Immortality means living on in the world with a name, becoming a symbol, and being remembered by people forever.

Clearly, the Western merchant alliance was an important means for Wan Wenqing to pursue power and immortality, but it seemed that no one was optimistic about this alliance.

This situation, where no one was optimistic, made Wan Wenqing very anxious. He went to his mentor, Wang Jiaping, to find a solution.

After Wang Chonggu's death, the Jin Party collapsed, rendering Wang Jiaping, the party leader and head of the Quan Jin Guild Hall, virtually powerless. Even the leader of the Labor Party is now in the hands of Ling Yunyi, not Wang Jiaping.

If seniority were the deciding factor, Wang Jiaping should be the one to rival Shen Shixing. However, things are unpredictable. At this moment, Wang Jiaping is struggling even to become a mere clerk in the Western Study. Lacking political achievements to advance further, he urgently needs some merit.

“I really want to help you. His Majesty also intends to expand into the West. The success of the Pan-Pacific Trade Alliance has given the court certain expectations for the Western Trade Alliance. However, if we fail to achieve our goals, we will have to bear the consequences of those expectations being dashed.” Wang Jiaping said with a somewhat complicated expression as he looked at Wan Wenqing, who had come to him for help.

Wang Jiaping can fully support the establishment of the Western Merchants Alliance, but he needs more certainty to justify his larger investment.

Otherwise, protecting himself would also be a good option for him.

"We need more, something more practical," Wang Jiaping said frankly to his disciple, without hiding anything from him.

"Light oil." Wan Wenqing took out light oil, a product of petroleum distillation.

Lime torches are brighter than all other lamps in the Ming Dynasty, and their price has remained high due to the limited production and origin of light oil.

Wan Wenqing continued, "In Hormuz, black oil flows out when you step on it. The oil is refined and then used as fuel to illuminate the classrooms of the three-tiered academy of the Great Ming Dynasty, and to illuminate the entire Great Ming Dynasty."

The merchant alliance needed a core commodity as its foundation, and Wan Wenqing set his sights on oil, which was the most interesting thing to the Ming Dynasty besides the barbarians and the Kunlun slaves.

The Ming Dynasty's development of petroleum was not comprehensive; the lime torch made from light oil was by no means the whole story of petroleum.

To find the core product, Wan Wenqing believed that only this kind of thing best met the needs of the Ming Dynasty.

“You’re absolutely right.” Wang Jiaping pondered for a moment before placing his bet, because the Ming Dynasty’s firearms, the Divine Fire Flying Crow, required a large amount of petroleum-refined oil.

Lighting, fuel, ink, medicine, road paving—the Ming Dynasty's exploitation of oil remains severely inadequate.

The Western merchant alliance presented an opportunity.

Of course, for the Ming Dynasty at present, the success of the Western Merchant Alliance would be a cause for celebration, and failure would not incur a heavy price and would not affect the Ming Dynasty's opening of the seas.

With the help of Wan Wenqing, Wang Jiaping wrote a memorial and presented it to the emperor.

(End of this chapter)