I'm really not doing business

Chapter 816: Garbage should be piled in the garbage dump

As Hai Rui grew older, he became more and more worried about the empire. Sometimes, in the dead of night, he would suddenly become absent-minded and then feel a sense of fear.

Fear of having no one behind you.

He is old, and no matter how sharp the imperial sword is, it cannot stop the erosion of time. He is not sure whether his appearance is a coincidence or a necessity of the Ming Dynasty.

In this short but brilliant life, he lived a life that was unmatched by many people.

He was very noble and never engaged in corruption. He did not demand anything from others but only from himself. He could even betray his own ideals for the sake of Ming Dynasty's reform and choose to act on expediency. He turned a blind eye to some cases of corruption and even turned a blind eye when some corrupt officials he dealt with were re-employed.

He knew very well that the Wanli Reform could not succeed with just a few people. His Majesty needed law-abiding officials, even if the morals of these officials were not so noble. He knew very well that he was a minority in this turbid world.

Over the years, the only person who was as famous as Hai Rui was Shen Li. However, this upright minister was becoming more and more smooth and fawning, and even his morals were declining to a certain extent.

The Governor-General's Office of Luzon, the Governor-General's Office of Old Port and the Governor-General's Office to be established in Jinchi have a group of military honors centered around the governors-general. These people were granted the titles of earl, thousand households and hundred households during the wars. This title can be inherited, but it has its own obligations.

These overseas earls and hundred-householders were all a kind of pioneering lords. If they wanted to continue the glory of their family, they had to keep fighting and pay enough heads of foreigners or enough slaves to various governors-general in order to continue this glory.

The anchor of their titles for overseas earls and centurions was the number of barbarian heads or slaves. Their descendants owed the government countless heads of foreigners from the moment they were born, and they would have to spend their entire lives to pay it back. They could also offer a reward and ask slave-catching merchants to hand over enough barbarian slaves to these lords.

This system was suggested by Lin Fucheng, a scholar with an extremely vicious heart. He made this suggestion for the sake of permanent monarchy.

In Lin Fucheng's view, it would be better for there to be no survivors in Southeast Asia without Han people. Instead of waiting for these beastly barbarians to turn against the Ming Dynasty, it would be better to directly eliminate them in the long river of history.

However, after the emperor knew about this system, he actually chose to circumvent it and concealed this condition. In the emperor's view, the Governor-General's Office was far away overseas, and doing so had its own difficulties.

When the Ministry of Rites found out about this, they actually did not do anything about it and didn't even say a word about God being merciful.

As the Minister of Rites, Shen Li did not advise the emperor to implement benevolent policies from the perspective of virtue. After Shen Li became flattering and no longer straightforward, Hai Rui became even more worried.

Hai Rui was not worried about the moral decline. The debate between China and the barbarians remained strong as ever, and Hai Rui did not intend to speak well of the barbarians.

He was worried that as the emperor's power grew, the scholars of the Ming Dynasty would all become tongue-tied, unwilling to actively offer suggestions or speak out directly, and would only know how to flatter or even laugh at the emperor's mistakes. Then the Ming Dynasty would become dangerous.

At this time, Hai Rui saw Xu Chengchu, and it was as if he saw himself in him.

Hai Rui was very optimistic about Xu Chengchu. Xu Chengchu grew up being ridiculed by others, with a tumor on his neck. Even after he passed the imperial examination and became a juren, no one proposed marriage to him. Even after he passed the imperial examination and became a jinshi, he was still laughed at by others. Xu Yanluo was the nickname given to him by his classmates.

But under such pressure, Xu Chengchu still grew up to be what he is now, with a strong character and integrity, and even dared to speak out and point out the mistakes of his emperor and father. He said that the Dinghai school system was incomplete and had problems. The ministers in the court all saw it, but they dared not and could not say it.

The emperor is no longer a child. If his ministers continue to speak out and give advice as they did in the past, it will undermine the emperor's prestige and will easily make the emperor afraid of them.

The local governments have invested heavily in universal education, which is bound to be siphoned off by talents and absorbed into the coastal metropolises. Then the talents trained in the inland areas will run away and development will be impossible. How can this loss-making business continue for a long time?
But if no one dared to question or even raise opinions about the decisions made by the emperor, the Ming Dynasty would easily go astray.

The appearance of Xu Chengchu made Hai Rui very happy. The Han Dynasty had loyal and good people in every generation, and having Xu Chengchu was enough.

There is nothing wrong with Xu Chengchu's character. He cares about the world, is resolute enough, and is talented. This is a scholar. His future is bright, but the road is tortuous and full of thorns.

The first case Xu Chengchu dealt with when he entered the Censorate was so difficult. It was the Song Shanyong corruption case. It was still a small matter. In the future, the higher the official position, the greater the storm, and the greater the test for Xu Chengchu.

Xu Chengchu now is just a piece of unpolished jade that needs to be carefully carved.

"Song Shanyong is guilty." Xu Chengchu turned around and said firmly, "This amount of silver is either tuition or stolen money! Five thousand four hundred silver coins were indeed used in Tianxiong Academy, that's true, but he took it, so he should be punished. If he is not punished, where is the law of the country?"

"I am not afraid of being pointed at or attacked, but I still want to say that I am not wrong."

"Song Shanyong is guilty, but he did nothing wrong." Hai Rui said with a smile on his face, "Xu Chengchu, this is your first lesson in the officialdom. You must remember that many things are like this. They violate the rules, but they are not wrong."

"You are not wrong, you are the censor, you are loyal to your duty; Song Shanyong is not wrong, he wants to run Tianxiong College; Daming Prefecture is not wrong, because the treasury is so poor that rats run away; the students who besieged you are not wrong either, they want to plead for their teacher, otherwise they would be ungrateful."

"This is where the difficulty of the world lies. No one is wrong, but the matter is guilty. So let me ask you, Xu Chengchu, who do you think is wrong?"

Xu Chengchu thought for a long time, his brows knitted into knots, and asked blankly: "Is the world wrong?"

"The world is right." Hai Rui shook his head and said, "The Ming Dynasty is still not strong enough. This case tells you that sometimes you can choose to turn a blind eye."

Xu Chengchu looked at Hai Rui with his eyes wide open in disbelief, and said blankly, "What General Hai means is that my first lesson in entering the Censorate is to learn to be flexible as a plain-clothed censor?"

"Indeed." Hai Rui's face looked very ugly. He shook his sleeves and threw out a book with mixed emotions. This book was written by Wang Chonggu, a treacherous minister in the court, the number one rebel, and a disloyal and unfilial person. It was titled "On the Self-cultivation of the Five-Step Snake". Another name for this book was "Being an Official".

This is Wang Chonggu's knowledge of being an official. There is a lot of content in it. Hai Rui really disliked Wang Chonggu, the treacherous minister, and then disliked his knowledge, but Wang Chonggu's knowledge of being an official was really extraordinary.

When Xu Chengchu saw the cover of the book, he frowned and said, "Wang Ci Fu is a traitor. I don't want to learn from him!"

"You must first know what a treacherous official is like, then you will know what kind of person you are dealing with. Knowing yourself and knowing your enemy will ensure victory in every battle. If you want to do something, you must first learn how to be an official." Hai Rui stuffed the book into Xu Chengchu's hands, patted them, and then sighed and said, "Take it and study it carefully."

"Yes." Xu Chengchu's face turned red, but he still held the book in his hand.

Xu Chengchu was a little confused after returning to the Quan Chu Guild Hall. He clearly did nothing wrong, but still did things very badly. Xu Chengchu read Wang Chonggu's "Being an Official" with a critical attitude, and then read it again with a serious study attitude. Finally, with an attitude of serious study and thorough understanding, he read the book thoroughly.

At this moment, Xu Chengchu suddenly realized that he had caused trouble. He actually put the emperor in a very embarrassing situation, in a dilemma of whether to punish him or not. In the end, the emperor still used the method of private pardon and allowed Song Shanyong to be an official in Beijing, thus taking everyone's dignity into consideration.

Only then did Xu Chengchu realize that he had wasted precious political resources, the emperor's favor.

From the emperor to Hai Rui, everyone gave Xu Chengchu enough time and space to grow.

Xu Chengchu also learned something from this thin book "Being an Official". When encountering such a dilemma case, one must learn to shirk responsibility, pass the buck, and be flexible. One must let these law-abiding officials do their jobs instead of using the national law to bind officials at all levels and make them unable to move. That is pedantic.

"Wang Ci Fu didn't look like a treacherous minister, so how did he become one?" Xu Chengchu no longer objected to the book "Being an Official". He found that Wang Chonggu lived a very clear-headed life, but how did such a clear-headed person become a recognized treacherous minister?
In fact, Wang Chonggu wrote it very clearly in the book that he just didn't accept it.

Zhang Juzheng was just a young boy. A young man came to the cabinet and he wanted to kill the old men who had made great contributions when the empire was in turmoil. Gao Gong, Yang Bo, Wang Chonggu and others were not convinced and felt that their Jin Party was powerful and deeply rooted. Why did Zhang Juzheng always win?

Now that the Jin Party is gone, Wang Chonggu has been convinced and has learned to persuade himself. Isn't it just a loss to Zhang Juzheng? This guy is a monster who has never lost.

Wang Chonggu explains the workaround in his book.

The Luzon Governor's Office was established in the second year of the Wanli reign. After the Luzon Governor's Office captured Manila that year, it tortured, coerced, bribed, deceived, and even forced Deng Zilong to marry Lorien to appease the shipbuilders.

Eventually, all these shipbuilders were recruited as craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty. After the Ming Dynasty opened its seas, the shipbuilding industry began by imitating Western sailing ships and three-masted plywood ships.

The Ming Dynasty banned maritime operations for 170 years. The shipbuilders, industrial chain and system were all in ruins. Everything needed to be rebuilt and built by government factories. These red-haired foreign shipbuilders were the first batch of shipbuilders in the Ming Dynasty shipyard during the Wanli Restoration.

If the Ming Dynasty had held the attitude of the Celestial Empire at that time and thought that the technology of the foreigners was insignificant, then the Ming Dynasty's opening up to the sea would not have been so smooth.

Flexibility is for better development and to make the Ming Dynasty great again.

"If you hold a jade or jade and walk on a muddy path, the jade will break; if you wear leather shoes and wade through a turbulent stream, you will drown; state affairs are like a weave, with the warp and weft intertwined. If you forcefully cut the threads, the whole piece of silk will be ruined."

“A gentleman in his conduct should be like the rivers and seas that embrace all rivers without losing their flavor; a true pillar of society should appear as gentle as a reed on the outside but as strong as a pine or cypress on the inside; therefore, a gentleman should be like an uncut jade or a sharp sword; when hidden in the sheath, it is as warm as jade; when unsheathed, its cold light can captivate the soul.” Xu Chengchu made the annotations. This was the insight he got after reading the book on Being an Official.

Xu Chengchu reflected on himself and realized that the reason why he was annoying was not just because of the tumor on his neck, but also because of the aggressiveness he showed because of the tumor. The offensiveness was a way to protect himself from humiliation and ridicule, just like a rooster with its feathers standing on end.

This kind of thorny bone is indeed annoying, but it does not mean that Xu Chengchu was wrong in the past. He thought that since he passed the imperial examination, no one would discriminate against him. After all, in his mind, Jinshi at least have moral integrity.

But he was wrong. After passing the imperial examination, he was subjected to even more widespread and vulgar ridicule, so he chose to use a sharper appearance to protect his fragile self.

Now, he has been reborn and no longer needs a sharp shell to protect himself. He can learn from Hai Rui. Hai Rui is a man of integrity. When he wields his magic sword, no demons or monsters can escape. Officials fear him, but respect him at the same time.

When you are not taking action, you should be as gentle as jade; when you are taking action, you should be ruthless.

What surprised Xu Chengchu the most was that Hai Rui and Wang Qian had a very good relationship. Even Wang Qian himself was the Plain-clothed Censor. This was the fact that shocked Xu Chengchu the most!
The only son of the Wang family, the second richest man in the world and a great playboy in the capital, was actually a plain-clothed censor. He actually promised to be incorruptible for life to achieve his life goals. This surprised Xu Chengchu too much.

The book "Being an Official" that Hai Rui handed to Xu Chengchu was annotated by Hai Rui himself. He told Xu Chengchu the source of his clues.

It is true that one cannot judge a book by its cover. Under the dandy appearance of Wang Qian, he actually has such ambitions.

At this time, Wang Qian went to see his father in the name of visiting his son. After all, he was old and could not expect Wang Chonggu to bow his head first, so Wang Qian returned to the old house to visit his father.

Wang Chonggu appeared to be impartial and ruthless, but he actually ordered his servants to prepare wine and food.

"You, you are too impetuous in doing things. Last time, your nine prohibitions caused such a big mess. If you hadn't stepped on your own father's face and relied on the grace of His Majesty, you would never have succeeded." Wang Chonggu did not drink, and the chief physician did not allow him to do so. However, Wang Chonggu still taught his son a lesson, hoping that his son would hold back on the matter of Yanxinglou Trading Company.

That is a public business. Not encroaching on public interests to enrich oneself is already worthy of the emperor's grace. Your life is your own.

Wang Chonggu had no lofty consciousness. He had already sacrificed his younger brother Wang Chongyi for the sake of state affairs. He did not want to see Wang Qian buried before he died. Wang Qian leaned to one side and whispered, "Dad, I came back this time because I am unsure about one thing."

"So that's how it is. You're willing to come back because your father is useful, right?" Wang Chonggu was almost given a heart attack by Wang Qian's sneaky look!

Wang Qian has only one attitude: if you are useful, you are a father; if you are useless, you are an old man!
"Tell me what's the matter. I can give you some advice." Wang Chonggu was also curious. Wang Qian, who was fearless and could come up with an idea as soon as he turned his eyes, actually had doubts.

Wang Qian drank a full cup before saying, "There is a way to play at Yanxinglou Trading House, which is to borrow a large number of valuable tickets at a relatively low price, and then keep selling them to lower the price, causing market panic and shocks, and then keep buying at low prices and then return the valuable tickets."

“After buying enough chips at a low price, we will start to push up the price continuously and then sell them. When the trading is not frequent and the trading volume is small, we can use very little money to push up the price.”

"I heard you say that it has been there for a long time, hasn't it?" Wang Chonggu was a little puzzled. Wang Qian called this trading phenomenon "short", and regarded a large-volume decline as a short-selling signal, and a small-volume rise as a selling signal.

Of course, in actual transactions, due to the game between multiple parties, the signals of short selling and shipping are not so obvious.

Wang Qian then explained: "Recently, all companies have suffered heavy losses, so they banned the method of borrowing stocks to crash the market."

"What do you think?" Wang Chonggu asked slowly.

"It is not prohibited." Wang Qian said with certainty: "Of course, small investors with weaker risk-taking ability will always sell their chips out of panic, and they like to chase rising prices. If a stock price rises, they will immediately flock to it, and there will be a lot of noise. After a while, no one will care anymore."

"It is the small investors who suffer from all this back and forth, but I still don't intend to ban the use of borrowed stocks to dump the market."

"What's the reason?" Wang Chonggu sat up straight and asked seriously.

Wang Qian hesitated and said, "Although we have the Nine Prohibitions, there will always be fish that slip through the net. The Labor Party is weak, and Wang Jiaping is about to arrive in the capital. I am afraid that my nine prohibitions can block the majority, but there will still be fish that slip through the net and enter the market."

"After all, there are social situations beyond legal principles. One needs to be flexible and adaptable above being upright. This is the way to be an official."

"At this time, if we allow borrowing stocks to drive the market down, the price will be driven down to a reasonable level, where it should be."

"Oh, I understand. You read the struggle paper." Wang Chonggu raised his eyebrows and understood what Wang Qian meant.

A new private house entering the market is not allowed to use its shares to dump the market. The price can be driven up to the sky in a few days. On the first day of entering the market, it will earn all the money it could have earned in several lifetimes. Who would be willing to work hard?

On the contrary, allowing the use of stocks to crash the market can bankrupt these owners and force the shopkeepers to run the shops well. The market can force the owners and shopkeepers to make good decisions instead of making trouble. The kelp may be washed away today and float back tomorrow. This kind of thing will not happen.

If you fool the market, someone in the market will take advantage of your deception and borrow a lot of chips to smash you to death.

This is the game, the game between the market and the people.

"If we do this, the small households will suffer." Wang Chonggu thought for a long time and said confidently: "Let's do as you think. In the long run, it will be beneficial for the market to correct the prices of government-owned factories and private workshops."

"It's not like good valuable tickets are priced out of stock and no one can afford them, and it's not like these rubbish can earn several lifetimes' worth of money on the first day of entering the market."

The long-term stability of Yanxinglou must be based on constant metabolism, clearing out the garbage and leaving behind the successful and capable private workshops and government factories, which will benefit everyone.

The best ones will stay and the inferior ones will be eliminated.

Allowing stocks to be used to crash the market means that garbage should be piled in the garbage dump, allowing the damned ones to enter the downward cycle faster, die faster, and accelerate metabolism.

"What about the government-owned factories? If they are short of money and come to the market for financing, but are smashed right after entering, who can they turn to for justice?" Wang Qian immediately talked about the first difficulty. The government-owned factories with government backgrounds would be hit hard as soon as they entered the market, and would run to Wang Chonggu or Wang Jiaping to cry for help, and things would become a little troublesome.

Wang Chonggu immediately said, "The government-run factory has relied on the government's support, so it can't do business and has no need to exist. Who said that government-run factories can't be closed? Only private factories are allowed to close down?"

"If you ask me, even if government-owned factories can go bankrupt, they still need to maintain their metabolism. If they don't, sooner or later they will become rigid and bloated and there will be no way to fix them."

"It's not doing well, it's out of money, and can't afford to support the craftsmen in the factory. Does it have to rely on the imperial taxes to support them? The imperial taxes can't support so many craftsmen."

No one can live forever, and no system can remain unchanged forever.

Even Your Majesty has prepared for the loss of the Zhu family's kingdom and the demise of the Ming Dynasty. Why should the court allow the state-owned factories, which occupy greater power, to rot freely without taking any measures to clear them out when they have difficulty even making a living in the market competition with the private factories?

If borrowing stocks to crash the market is prohibited, Yanxinglou Trading House will lose its mechanism for correcting errors through game theory.

But it is obvious that by doing so, small households will lose all their money and flee quickly, and then gather around private trading fairs with high thresholds, becoming the wings of these trading fairs, allowing these trading fairs to take their money and do whatever they want in the trading world.

The benefits of doing so are also obvious, that is, the Yanxinglou market follows the principles of "Natural Selection" and "Anthropic Selection", where the fittest survive and only the fittest can be selected. This will not leave a lot of garbage entering the market due to nepotism, leaving the entire market to rot.

Corruption will spread. Once the amount of corruption increases, the entire market will rot, the gold story will collapse, and the Ming Baochao will lose its first anchor and become a credit currency.

There is no perfect solution in the world. Any policy has its pros and cons, and we need to make a choice.

Wang Chonggu knew the officialdom too well. How many clerks were there in Yanxinglou Trading Company? Even if everyone in these trading companies was selfless, dedicated to the public, and had high moral standards, it would be impossible to completely regulate the huge market with the scale of clerks. This was beyond human power.

The participants in the entire market are the majority, and only through game play can a consensus be formed.

Doing so is to drive out small households and form a multi-dealer market. However, if small households are deeply involved in this game, it is an act of speculation rather than investment.

"Choose the lesser of two evils." Wang Chonggu made the decision for Wang Qian. Sometimes, Wang Qian would be confused and hesitant.

"Wang Jiaping wants to see you." The doorman stood in front of the study door and handed a visiting card to Wang Qian.

When Wang Jiaping came to Beijing, the first thing he came to do was to pay a visit to Wang Chonggu.

Wang Qian looked at the visiting card in his hand and said with emotion: "Speaking of Cao Cao, Wang Jiaping is here."

The Labour Party is about to hand over the baton to Wang Jiaping. Although they all come from the Shanxi Party, they don't get along well with each other. They have stumbled along to where they are today and have finally come together.

Wang Jiaping stood in front of the gate of the Wang family mansion, with his hands behind his back, looking at the door, a little dazed. Last time, he came to Wang Chonggu for help for the Huitongguan Inn in Guangzhou Prefecture, hoping that Wang Chonggu would help him because they were all from the Jin Party.

Wang Chonggu said nothing and just got the job done. This was a form of friendship. Later, Wang Jiaping retaliated and he fell into a moral crisis.

Wang Chonggu, Wang Qian and even the emperor all thought that Wang Jiaping would do something for the people of Jin, take the opportunity to suppress dissidents, place his cronies in positions of power and consolidate his own authority, so the emperor directly demolished the Quanjin Guild Hall and turned it into a work hall to make Wang Jiaping less capable.

But Wang Jiaping knew very well that there would be no counterattack, mainly because he did not have the ability to do so.

The emperor and Wang Chonggu were confused.

What is the Jin Party? Where are the people in the Jin Party? ! The former Jin Party has been disbanded, either switching to the Labour Party or the Imperial Party.

Fan Yingqi was imprisoned and could not get out. Zhou Liangyin simply became an imperial party member like Hou Yuzhao, or was dismissed or convicted in the brutal political struggle. Some unlucky ones were used by Wang Chonggu to win the emperor's favor.

The Jin Party really has no one left. A party without anyone is doomed to sink.

There is no vacuum of power. As long as there is any gap, someone will fill it and exercise power on your behalf.

"Greetings, Wang Ci Fu." Wang Jiaping performed the salute as a disciple. He came back to Beijing with a very clear purpose. He wanted to pay his respects to the pier first and must not make the same mistake that Zhang Siwei made back then.

At that time, Zhang Siwei took advantage of Yang Bo and thought that he was sure to get the position of party leader. He even regarded the Quanjin Guild Hall as his own. He corrupted the current Yingtian Governor Li Le and did not regard Yang Bo as the party leader. Later, Yang Bo handed the position of party leader to Ge Shouli.

"Sit down, sit down." Wang Chonggu was very happy about Wang Jiaping's visit. At least Wang Jiaping did not take advantage of his youth to bully the old man. This was already very moral.

Wang Chonggu and Wang Jiaping talked about a lot, such as the Guangdong and Guangxi Salt Reform Law formulated by Yin Zhengmao, the operation of the Guangzhou Maritime Customs, the ironworks and shipyards in Foshan, the situation in Annan, etc.

"I hold a conservative attitude towards the situation in Annan. The Annanese are not fighting fiercely enough. It just so happens that I am old, so I called you back. Don't think that I am stopping you from making achievements and merging with Annan. After weighing the pros and cons, I think the Labor Party is more important to the Ming Dynasty." Wang Chonggu talked about his attitude towards Annan.

Wang Jiaping said very directly: "This is not the right time. Burma, Laos, Siam, Annan, Champa, these places are all barbarians. Without sufficient lessons, they will not be obedient."

Wang Jiaping also expressed his attitude. To annex Annan seemed to be a great achievement and very tempting, but it was also very hot to handle. At present, the internal strife in Annan was not fierce enough, and the time had not come for the fruit to ripen.

Before leaving, Wang Jiaping increased the import of imported grain and Champa grain, accelerating the internal strife in Annan.

"Regarding the trade unions that Wang Ci Fu has always been worried about, I have an immature idea and hope that Wang Ci Fu can help me with some advice." Wang Jiaping took out a memorial, which was his practical experience in Guangzhou.

There are traces that the two iron smelters in Foshan were able to drive out bad money with good money.

Nothing in the world happens without reason. Wang Chonggu wants to hand over the Labor Party to him, Wang Jiaping, so Wang Jiaping has to come up with something to allow Wang Chonggu to do what he has always wanted to do. The labor union is Wang Chonggu's biggest headache now.

After reading the memorial, Wang Chonggu said with some confusion: "Minister Wang, what you mean is that the current government-owned factories are too closed, so it is impossible to form a trade union?"

"Running water never stale." Wang Jiaping answered with certainty.

(End of this chapter)