I'm really not doing business

Chapter 690 The Ming Emperor is an Oriental Dragon Who Likes Silver
Wang Chonggu used his rich experience to tell everyone how to be an official. It was not the Confucian way of ruler-ruler relationship, but how to ensure that one would not end up in tragedy in the sea of ​​sin in officialdom.

When Zhu Yijun was in the Northern Yamen, he liked to read miscellaneous newspapers very much. After he came to the Southern Yamen, there were even more miscellaneous newspapers. After all, there was no emperor in the Southern Yamen, so there was more freedom. Zhu Yijun saw some unrealistic political ideas.

The Donglin Party was best at criticizing current affairs and specific government affairs of the dynasty, supplemented by advocating integrity, claiming to be a clean stream, and clamoring for all kinds of seemingly wonderful but definitely impossible to implement policies. This kind of barking attracted supporters, but in the eyes of Emperor Zhu Yijun, this was just barking.

The Ming Emperor summarized these seemingly wonderful but unrealistic policies.

The Wanli Restoration was implementing many new policies, and these literati in Jiangnan, mainly clamoring for action, also wanted to implement some new policies.

For example, in the matter of rectifying social customs, the Jiangnan scholar-officials headed by Gao Panlong proposed that "the filthy tendencies are rampant, and we should vigorously abolish brothels to eliminate filthiness and rectify evil." In other words, all brothels should be eliminated, so that the oppression of brothel women would disappear.

It seems that the unhealthy social atmosphere is all caused by prostitutes in brothels.

This seems very pure. After all, the world of fireworks is a breeding ground for crime. Social security issues such as human trafficking, forced buying and selling, and fighting for territory have emerged around the world of fireworks. However, these scholars never say that if the brothels are gone, what will happen to the prostitutes in them?

Besides, if these meat eaters don't go to high-end consumption places like brothels, then there will be no more? On the one hand, he was madly licking the cricket pupae on the brothel girls, and on the other hand, he was scolding the girls for being filthy.

For example, in the area of ​​education, these Jiangnan scholars believed that education should be returned to the people.

This trend started after Zhu Yuanzhang deleted some parts of Mencius. The imperial court controlled the imperial examinations and official printed books, set up schools in prefectures, counties and cities, controlled the number of students, and wanted to educate the people so that the world would be united. However, these literati would never say that their annual tuition fee was ten taels of silver. Not to mention the poor and laborers, even ordinary local celebrities and gentry could not afford to support three or five children at home.

This is still relatively better. There are some more misleading rumors and opinions spreading in the Southern Court.

For example, officials and gentry all paid taxes, but officials and gentry did not pay taxes! Are they still Ming people? It seems that they support the court's tax collection, but they are not at all.

Officials and gentry in the Ming Dynasty also had to pay taxes, but their privilege was to be exempted from part of the regular taxes and to be exempted from labor service.

The biggest problem of the Ming Dynasty was tax evasion, which was extremely serious. The right prescription was for the Tax Inspection Office to vigorously inspect taxes, clarify the land registration, and understand the issue of the tax base. The court would then know who to ask to collect taxes, instead of collecting taxes every summer and autumn like bandits going to the countryside.

If we really listen to these scholars and cancel the privileges of officials and gentry who are exempt from taxes and labor service, the poor scholars, the largest group of scholars, will only resent the court and defect to these powerful and wealthy people.

The emperor always needs scholars to govern the country. The key to the problem is how to get more people to read.

For example, the Ming Dynasty was in financial difficulties, so why didn't they strictly enforce the salt law to make money? The Ming Dynasty's salt law and salt permit system had long been corrupted. If private salt was banned, the Ming Dynasty court could at least earn an extra 3100 million silver coins a year. This seems simple and easy, and this is not a random estimate. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the salt money alone was more than million strings of silver!
Money, lots of money!

If the salt law was strictly enforced and the court issued salt permits, there would be no need to set up government factories to collect salt and make a bad name for itself, and the income would be almost the same as the salt law.

The only thing these despicable scholars didn't mention was the cost. The collapse of the salt permit system was not only caused by Emperor Xiaozong's outburst of filial piety. Under the circumstances at that time, if the crackdown on private salt was too harsh, there might be another Huang Chao. The rampant private salt dealers were because there was a demand for salt.

The strict salt law looks good, but what do the people eat? This is the most basic question that I, a humble Confucian, will never explain. I just deliberately create a persona that I am smarter than the officials in the court, and then attract fans and disciples.

There are many of these messy policies, and each of them looks good, but in fact they are all unrealistic, or even harbor evil intentions. As long as you apply the contradictions to them and think about them, you will find the problems.

"This one seems the most outrageous, but it does have some possibility." Zhu Yijun said happily as he looked at a newspaper in his hand.

The lowly scholars in the Southern Court believed that every adult man in the Ming Dynasty should get some land to cultivate from the imperial court!

This seems to be the most outrageous. The Ming Dynasty has nearly 120 million people. Where did all this land come from?!
The current new policy of the Ming Dynasty is to sort out the means of production of the Ming Dynasty, but the idea advocated by these cheap Confucian scholars is to do it in one step. What is there to sort out? Just go straight to the fields! It is a bit like using more radical policies to satirize and criticize the conservative new policy, and then achieve the purpose of undermining the new policy.

The original intention was bad, but the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was able to really implement it, and adults in the Ming Dynasty could really receive land!

It’s just that these lands are in Suiyuan, Liaodong, the four governor-general’s offices, Keelung, Ryukyu, Luzon, Java, the Thousand Islands, and the Yuanxu Islands.

"Your Majesty, this is the memorial from the Grand Tutor." Feng Bao handed a memorial to His Majesty. This was a memorial that did not require approval. It was what Wang Guoguang saw and heard in the Southern Court.

After reading the memorial, Zhu Yijun was silent for a moment. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty had no way to respond to what Wang Guoguang said.

In his memorial, Wang Guoguang stated a contradiction: the contradiction between the silver blockage in Nan Ya and the shortage of currency. The silver blockage means that there is too much silver, which is blocked and cannot flow downward, causing the exchange value of silver to drop sharply. Why is Nan Ya still short of money?

"In May last year, one ounce of fine silver was worth 840 coins, but in June it was only worth 820 coins. As for shops, they only got 760 to 770 coins. Common people had no money to spend, but they could still get it in circulation by mixing it with lead and tin." Zhu Yijun read a passage from the original text in the memorial.

What was lacking was base metal currency. The scale of minting of Wanli Tongbao coins in the Ming Dynasty could not keep up with the huge market demand. Silver was piling up like a mountain, and the inflow of red copper was far less than that of silver. This caused the magical phenomenon that silver depreciated on a large scale, but there was still not enough money.

The currency of Nan Ya was changing from the simple shortage of money in the past to a situation where there was too much silver inflow, too few copper coins, a rapid depreciation of silver, and a rapid appreciation of copper coins and even flying coins.

If the major problem of congestion at both ends cannot be properly solved, Nan Ya, the richest place in the Ming Dynasty and the largest carriage that carries the Ming Dynasty forward, will come to a standstill, which will cause immeasurable harm to the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yijun looked at the memorial and said helplessly: "The first solution is to issue more overseas currency notes, which will inevitably face the problem of bad money driving out good money, and this requires the Ming Dynasty's reputation to be strong enough, but the Ming Dynasty has no credibility at all. Although it has recovered in the past thirteen years, it is still not enough."

"If we don't want to use the banknote system, we must find ways to increase the inflow of red copper, so that the speed of red copper inflow is faster than the depreciation of silver and the appreciation of copper coins, or in other words, faster than the development speed of the Southern Yamen."

The contradiction between silver and copper coins seems to be a matter of adding water when there is too much flour or adding flour when there is too much water. But the problem now is that the Ming court has too much flour and not enough water, and adding water is like a cook without rice.

"It's really a happy trouble." Zhu Yijun didn't think there was anything wrong with it. This was the trouble of development, which was much better than the trouble of waiting to die.

Feng Bao smiled and said, "That's right."

Feng Bao didn't think it was a bad thing. Now, the vibrant Nan Ya was better than the stagnant small peasant economy of Nan Ya. When the scholars and officials went to the brothels, they all liked the tender new tea, not the old tea that was old and withered.

What is more interesting is that there is a very common public opinion among the literati in Jiangnan now, that is, everything is to blame on Zhang Juzheng!

For example, the contradiction between silver and copper coins, the lowly Confucian scholars put the blame on Zhang Juzheng. What kind of one-whip system is this Zhang Juzheng using? Why collect currency tax or in-kind tax? There is no such problem.

While Zhu Yijun was worried about the red copper of the Ming Dynasty, the person who would solve this problem was already ready to set off.

Legazpi brought Galileo to Ming Dynasty on the large sailing ship of Philip II that came to the Far East for trade. During the nearly one-year voyage, Legazpi disembarked at the Port of Luzon and once again set foot on the territory of Ming Dynasty.

That's right. In Legazpi's view, this was not a Governor's Office at all. Luzon, which had a governor, governor-general, prosecutor, provincial governor, twelve town offices, used the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and even had a school, was the territory of the Ming Dynasty. It was very different from the Governor's Office in the West.

Galileo felt a little dizzy when he got off the ship. Living on the ship for a long time, especially the long ocean voyage from Peru to Luzon, made him forget the feeling of being on the ground. They were not allowed to get off the ship in Davao City because there was actually an office called the Governor-General's Office of the Philippines in Davao City. In order to prevent collusion, all crew members were prohibited from getting off the ship when the sailing ship arrived in Davao City.

In order to maintain mutual dignity, the Ming Dynasty retained such a yamen, and in order to maintain his own dignity, Felipe II pretended that the Governor-General's Office of the Philippines still existed and sent some supplies every year.

Galileo said sincerely: "This place was not called Luzon before, nor was it called Luzon Port, but Manila. This was the pride of Philip II in the Far East, the pearl of the Far East, and it was seized by the Ming Dynasty. How willing was Philip to come to the Ming Dynasty every year to pay tribute with 4 million to 6 million taels of silver."

"Pray for the mercy of the Ming Emperor and obtain some silk, cotton cloth, and ships."

Legazpi waved his hands and said, “You are wrong. This place was called Luzon hundreds of years ago. We killed the king of Luzon, enslaved the civilians of Luzon, called them natives and human-like monkeys, and then enslaved them to build the stone castle over there. We used the solid castle to maintain our brutal and bloody rule.”

"Please don't discuss history with the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty is the living Rome of the Far East and the source of all culture."

"Child, you are only in your twenties. I hope you will always remember this: sin is always sin. It cannot be eliminated by praying in front of a statue or buying a few indulgences."

Legazpi was a missionary, but he later broke his promise. When he was on the ship, Legazpi pretended to be a believer, but after getting off the ship, he immediately stopped pretending and even began to publicly criticize indulgences for doing evil with a clear conscience.

Who is the newcomer in the land of Luzon is a self-evident fact. It is unwise to discuss history with the Ming Dynasty. It is better to discuss mathematics with the Ming Dynasty. Mathematics in the Ming Dynasty has indeed not made much progress since Guo Shoujing in the Yuan Dynasty.

"During the brutal colonial rule, these people were slaves, but now they are commanding the laborers to carry the copper onto the ship." Legashi looked at the blue sky and sea where the sky and the horizon meet, and at the laborers at the port who were shouting and yelling. They used various methods to pull the heavy cargo from the pier to the ship.

The trade winds change in April, and it is the busiest time for maritime trade. The copper reserves in the twelve copper towns are about 12 million jin, and the red copper that will arrive at Ming Dynasty from Luzon this year will exceed 17 million jin.

According to the estimate of Chen Chengyi, general manager of the Luzon Copper Factory, in the 15th year of Wanli, the amount of red copper shipped from Luzon to the Ming Dynasty would exceed 22 million kilograms.

Chen Chengyi brought extremely abundant red copper to the Ming Dynasty, which could alleviate some of the conflicts between silver and copper coins in the Southern Court.

Legazpi said with great emotion: “You know, these laborers are not free. The Luzon Governor-General’s Office has to pay them wages. So you see them talking and laughing. I guess they are planning to have some fun after work.”

"During the cruel and bloody colonial era, the Governor's Office did not pay any wages to its employees. These Luzon people did not even have bows and arrows. They worked until they died under the coercion and temptation of firearms." "Then everyone told you that this was a gift from God. Galileo, do you think it was a gift or looting?"

"You are right, this is cruel plunder." It was also the first time that Galileo heard Legazpi so harshly criticize the Vatican, doctrine, and Western colonial behavior.

On the boat, Li Yashi was very careful with his words and actions, fearing that he would say something wrong and be thrown into the sea by the sailors. But when he arrived at the Ming Dynasty, he could say that here he could not believe in God.

"You only agree superficially." Legashi looked at Galileo and shook his head.

The Ming Dynasty had a process called backfiring. In order to make the core hardness of the workpiece higher than the surface hardness, the craftsmen allowed the workpiece to cool naturally, and then placed it in the furnace to heat it again. They had to use a strong fire to raise the surface temperature. After taking it out, the temperature was allowed to become uniform, and it was immediately quenched and heated again.

And now Galileo was going through this process, and the reason why Legazpi understood it so well was because he had experienced it.

When a person encounters opinions or evidence that contradict his or her own beliefs, unless these opinions and evidence are strong enough to overturn the original beliefs, people will ignore them or even refute them. When the external force is strong enough, they have to bow their heads and temporarily agree on the surface, and the original beliefs will become more firm. This is the backfire of a person, soft on the outside but hard on the inside.

Legazpi did not intend to shatter Galileo's beliefs immediately, because Galileo did not agree with the doctrine itself. If he talked too much, the young man would develop a rebellious mentality, which would be counterproductive. The longer he walked and the more he saw, the more he would understand.

Galileo smiled and said nothing.

You, Legazpi, are a traitor to the Holy See, and Galileo is a secular knight who charges against the Holy See. His research on anatomy and astronomy, each of which shakes the foundation of the Holy See. If he believed in religion, would he be forced to leave the West and run to the Ming Dynasty?
Along the way, Galileo saw clearly what life was like in the Governor's Mansion in the West, in the colonies, and in the common people of Luzon under the Meiji rule. He was not blind, so he saw it clearly.

He did not just agree superficially, he really recognized the high moral inferiority of the Ming Dynasty, and he was fascinated by the Ming Imperial Academy of Science, the temple of science that only existed in legends.

"There is no opium this time." After thoroughly inspecting the sailing ship, the Ming Dynasty Governor Yin Zhengmao confirmed that no contraband was carried this time and heaved a sigh of relief. The last Sauron case also made Yin Zhengmao helpless.

"It seems that there are two million more taels of silver on the ship." Shi Longbo Deng Zilong said with a strange look on his face. This year, there is an unusually large amount of silver on the ship, exceeding 700 million taels of silver, far exceeding the transaction volume in previous years.

Li Yashi smiled and explained, "King Felipe II of Spain was not aware of the opium dispute last year. It was Solon who acted privately for his own benefit. However, such an explanation is too pale and no one would believe it. So His Majesty the King took two million taels of silver and gave it to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty as an apology. After all, real money is more convincing."

"That is indeed very convincing." Deng Zilong said with great approval: "Has your majesty's approval of silver spread to the West?"

Everyone present immediately smiled in understanding. His Majesty's frugality is well known to the world, and this frugality is reflected in his preference for silver.

The transformation from a small peasant economy to a commodity economy required a large amount of silver as a catalyst. Only when massive amounts of silver continued to flow into the Ming Dynasty could the Ming Dynasty make steady progress. Of course, this created the international image of the Ming Emperor: an oriental dragon that loved silver, with mountains of silver beneath its body.

Legazpi thought for a moment and replied, "That is inevitable, but what surprises His Majesty the King is that the great Emperor of Ming, the wise prophet, is indifferent to gold. This proves that His Majesty does not like silver, but is a wise king. I told His Majesty that compared to silver, His Majesty also likes red copper."

This sentence is a bit of a riddle, but everyone present can understand it. Does His Majesty really love silver?
The amount of gold is too small to be widely used; silver is a precious metal currency and can be widely used, but it is not the currency of poor people and laborers; and the Wanli Tongbao coin made of red copper is what everyone needs.

So, although His Majesty the Emperor loves silver and copper, what he actually loves is the people.

This is a very subtle flattery, but it is also the truth of the matter. During the fifteen days that Li Ya told the story to Felipe II, he explained this logic very clearly.

But Felipe firmly believed that silver was the only form of apology that would be acceptable to His Majesty.

Whether Solon's actions were personal or not, Solon was Felipe's messenger.

"What are those big pipes over there emitting white smoke?" Galileo looked towards the distance of Luzon Port. The visibility was very good, and Galileo saw chimneys emitting billowing white smoke.

"That's brick making." Deng Zilong explained with a smile. Bricks are a local commodity. Because bricks are not expensive and are very heavy, all brick making is done locally. Manila is building the New Luzon City, so a large number of bricks need to be made.

"Can I go and have a look?" Galileo was very curious about everything about the Ming Dynasty. The nobles used stone to build castles, but in fact, the West also made bricks. For example, Galileo had seen five-palm bricks, which were a kind of red brick. For various reasons, this kind of brick was not durable, but the Ming bricks he saw were all green, which aroused his curiosity.

"Okay." Yin Zhengmao agreed to Galileo's request.

Galileo left, full of anticipation for the unknown journey.

"Who is this person?" Yin Zhengmao asked with some confusion.

Legazpi looked at Galileo's back, took out a notebook, and said affirmatively: "He was a genius who was full of curiosity about the infinite principles of all things, very smart, and willing to put them into practice. This is the star map he drew on the sailing ship. It took him only three months to fully master the art of leading the stars across the ocean, and he successfully identified the direction three times, allowing the fleet to arrive in Manila a month ahead of schedule."

"Lord Guoxing, believe me, he and the five classics doctors of the Imperial Academy of Gewu will definitely have a lot of common topics."

Yin Zhengmao was stunned for a moment and asked, "He only took three months to master the art of pulling stars across the ocean?"

"He was bored on the boat, so he learned it by himself. No one taught him." Li Yashi said with some lingering fear: "I don't know how he learned such a complicated thing. Is he still a human being?"

The world of geniuses always leaves ordinary people a little confused. They all have the same nose and two eyes, so why is there such a big difference?

Li Yashi also studied the art of pulling stars across the ocean, but he didn't understand it fully.

Yin Zhengmao immediately said to Deng Zilong: "Deng Zilong, take a team of people to protect him and don't let him be killed by the natives. Perhaps he is more valuable than two million taels of silver."

Yin Zhengmao had a clear understanding of genius, because he was also a genius. Who among those who could pass the imperial examination was not a dragon among men? A leader in reading?
A person who taught himself the art of guiding stars across the ocean and was able to master it and correctly identify the direction can be called a genius and is the kind of person needed by the Ming Dynasty's Imperial Academy of Sciences.

Your Majesty has a great interest in recruiting talented people from all over the world. Only by improving productivity can we produce more materials and settle the people of the world.

Development can solve most problems naturally, and some stubborn problems that were considered unchangeable in the past will become insignificant in the process of development.

When the granaries are full, people know etiquette; when they have enough food and clothing, they know honor and disgrace. Even the Confucians, whose half bodies are buried in the ground and exude the smell of decay, say that material is the foundation of morality, and without material, discussing morality is a futile thing.

Galileo came to the brick kiln. When Deng Zilong and his soldiers surrounded him, Galileo was very panicked. He waved his hands and said in his not very fluent Chinese: "General, I didn't steal any secrets of the Ming Dynasty. Why are you arresting me?"

Galileo was not very fluent in Chinese, so he used Latin at the port. He was worried about being arrested by the Inquisition in the West. In his mind, the Ming Dynasty was similar to the Holy See. He thought that the knights of the Knights Templar wanted to arrest him because he said something wrong.

"No, it was the special envoy Li Yashi who said that you are a genius. In the Ming Dynasty, genius is more valuable than two million silvers, so I brought the troops here. This team of people will protect you. You have to know that the locals do not welcome the red-haired foreigners and even hate them." Deng Zilong explained why he came.

The hatred of the natives towards the red-haired foreigners is extremely strong and cannot be eased by the orders of the Governor-General's Office.

"Am I more valuable than two million taels of silver? Me? A stray... lost dog that has been chased everywhere?" Galileo was not familiar with hyperlinked Chinese, especially idioms. There are stories and meanings behind each idiom. It is really difficult to learn this stuff.

"A dog that has lost its home." Deng Zilong explained and said, "You can look at it as you like."

Only then did Galileo feel relieved and began to visit around. For some words that could not be expressed accurately, he would use Latin, and the interpreter who accompanied him would also explain them.

Galileo asked in great confusion: "In other words, the city wall of the southern capital of the Ming Dynasty has been standing for more than 200 years. Is it all made of rammed earth and bricks? Won't the bricks decompose?"

"Ah? Why would the bricks decompose?" The interpreter was even more confused. What gave Galileo such an idea? The Nanjing city wall has stood for more than two hundred years. How could it collapse so easily without being deliberately demolished?
Galileo sighed, shook his head and said, "The red bricks will decompose."

The craftsmanship of making blue bricks in Daming Dynasty is more complicated. For example, the seepage kiln is a behavior that Galileo could not understand. The reason why red bricks are red is actually the red of rust, which is fully oxidized ferric oxide. The reason why blue bricks are red is because of the seepage kiln, which is not fully oxidized and is ferrous oxide. Red bricks are not necessarily worse than blue bricks, it's just that the craftsmanship of Daming Dynasty is more rigorous.

This is a brick carefully selected by the Nine Clans.

"Can three carriages run side by side on the brick-clad city wall of the Ming Dynasty? I don't believe it. How is it possible?" Galileo had seen city walls before. He was lucky enough to be able to stand on the wall, let alone a carriage. People had to be careful when going up to prevent falling.

The interpreter didn't care. As an interpreter, he understood the difference between the Ming Dynasty and the West. He pointed to a place not far away and said, "You don't believe it? Look, the new Luzon city wall is over there. It can accommodate three carriages, but it's just a section. The governor has ordered that the city wall will not be built anymore."

"Ah?" Galileo looked in the direction of the interpreter's finger and saw a city gate that had been built. This city gate was a traditional city structure, but only a section of the city wall was built and then construction was completely stopped. It was not because of lack of money, but because times had changed.

The Luzon Governor's Office did not need to build city walls for the same reason that most cities in the south did not have city walls. Firstly, the enemies they faced were not very strong, and the houses outside the city were sufficient. Secondly, the size of the city was constantly expanding, and the city walls hindered its development.

Everything in Luzon is thriving.

(End of this chapter)