I'm really not doing business

Chapter 881 Whoever wins, they will help

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty reviewed the Jinan University. He would stay in Jinan for one more day before going to Xuzhou. Mainly, he met with powerful and influential people in Shandong in the Jinan Palace. These powerful and influential people were also carefully selected by Song Yingchang.

They all have common characteristics: they are all on the list of donated families, all own many workshops, and not much land. They are typical emerging bourgeoisie.

There are newly rising elites, such as the five families of Zhou, Huang, Lan, Yang and Guo in Jimo who are mainly engaged in maritime trade. They are not wealthy families, at most they are middle-class families, but they have become the trendsetters in the sea. There are also old trees that have sprouted new buds, such as the Wang family of Linyi, which has been passed down for nearly 1,600 years.

Similarly, the Wang family of Linyi was also the family with the most land. Even so, the total amount of land owned by their entire family, young and old, was less than 100 hectares.

It’s not that the Wang family of Linyi was unwilling to return the land. This land of less than 100 hectares was what was left after the land was returned. Most of it was mountains and forests, and one piece of land was their ancestral home and tomb.

The Ming Dynasty court and the Shandong local government had no intention of demolishing people's ancestral homes and tombs to cultivate the land.

The Linyi Wang family originated from Wang Ji in the Western Han Dynasty. According to the Wang family, they are the Langya Wang family. Their county emblem in the Eastern Han Dynasty was the Langya Linyi Wang family.

Over the course of a thousand years, the Wang family has branched out to various parts of the Ming Dynasty. However, the Linyi Wang family, because the north had fallen into the hands of the barbarians many times, gradually became a family that guarded their ancestral homes and tombs. After Wanli opened the sea and Shandong overthrew Confucius, the Wang family, on the contrary, gained new vitality.

The reason why Zhu Yijun was willing to stay for one more day was entirely to give these powerful and wealthy people some certainty and let them see the Ming Emperor himself. Only then could they be sure that the emperor was a man of great integrity who could lead everyone to reform the old and establish the new.

Certainty is very, very important, and it is worth the emperor staying in Jinan Prefecture for one more day.

From historical experience, among the reforms throughout dynasties, most failed, while only a few succeeded. The most successful of these was naturally Shang Yang's Reform, but other reforms always ended in a hurry, with the longest lasting only a few years, the shortest lasting a hundred days, and the shortest not even lasting two months.

Historical experience tells all powerful and influential people that there are too many uncertainties in reforming the old and establishing the new, and there are too many reforms that have a beginning but no end. Under such circumstances, it is very normal for powerful and influential people to hesitate to submit to the emperor and support the new policies when the situation is unclear.

Zhu Yijun always told Zhang Juzheng that selfishness is a neutral word and it is human instinct.

The future of Wanli's Reform was uncertain, so it was not realistic to ask powerful local gentry and local celebrities to gamble the lives of their entire family and play house with the emperor.

The Qin and Han dynasties are too far away, and the Tang and Song dynasties are not close either, so let’s just talk about the present.

In the early years of the Jiajing reign, the Jiajing Emperor was young and frivolous. He appointed Gui E and Zhang Cong to start the reform. After Zhang Cong's death, there was no successor and the Jiajing Emperor became uninterested. The complicated and cruel political struggles also made the Jiajing Emperor exhausted both physically and mentally.

The Jiajing New Deal lasted for about eleven years, starting from the ninth year of the Jiajing reign. But it eventually came to an end. This was a reform that lasted a very long time!
The powerful and wealthy who were waiting to see the joke really admired the Emperor Jiajing's perseverance and almost thought that he was a Hongyi scholar.

Reform and innovation is not just a game, it is really difficult. The power of the retro conservatives is strong enough and ruthless enough.

The reason for the failure of the Jiajing New Deal cannot even be entirely attributed to the Jiajing Emperor's negligence. If he had not lost his two right-hand men, Zhang Cong and Gui E, one after another, the Jiajing Emperor would have continued to persevere.

By the 21st year of the Jiajing reign, the new policies could no longer be sustained, largely because there was no one available in the court.

If the Taoist really slacked off, why would he need the palace maid to strangle his neck? It was because the Taoist had lost his left and right arms and still wanted to continue that someone started the palace maid to strangle his neck and told the Taoist that he needed to train his body to be like a crane.

Daoye really persisted for a long time. During the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi's reform lasted for five years.

Fan Zhongyan's Qingli New Deal, which lasted from August of the third year of the Qingli period to January of the fifth year of the Qingli period, was a complete failure, lasting only a year and a half at best.

Jia Sidao's public land system lasted only six months from policy formulation to its failure.

Zhu Yijun knew of a shorter reform, the Hundred Days' Reform and the Hundred Days' Reform. There was even a new reform even shorter than the Hundred Days' Reform, which did not even last two months.

Zhu Yijun met with powerful and wealthy people, especially those who no longer had much land and had staked their lives and property on the great success of the Wanli Reform. This was to give them certainty without them having to make promises. The calluses on his hands were proof of this.

The atmosphere of this meeting was relatively peaceful.

The powerful and wealthy people expressed their firm support for the new policy and their high approval of His Majesty's purge of the rebels. Some even suggested that they could donate money or food. After the tribute selection case broke out, the list of families that donated gave these emerging bourgeoisie a great shock. As long as the old ones were not dead, it would be difficult for the new nobles to feel at ease.

Zhu Yijun reiterated the long-term goals of the Five Large Tile Houses, and at the same time responded to the issue of maritime trade that the powerful and wealthy were most concerned about. He said that the Ming Dynasty would still not organize offshore official ships and official trade. At the same time, Zhu Yijun also hoped that the powerful and wealthy would actively participate in the ranks of global trade.

The global market is huge, and from the very beginning, the powerful and wealthy have been allowed to participate in this pie. However, due to limitations in technology, security and other reasons, the public rarely participated in it.

Mingguan have been initially established in various ports, so there are still some places to stay.

However, the powerful and wealthy were generally not enthusiastic and only spoke some flattering words. Only a few powerful and wealthy families near the Mizhou Maritime Customs clearly expressed their willingness to participate in global trade, but they simply provided goods rather than sailing on the ocean.

The reason for the lack of enthusiasm is very simple: it is too dangerous.

Offshore trade also makes a lot of money and is stable. The offshore return rate has steadily increased from 80% in the early days to 99%. Offshore trade is safer, more stable, and has lower costs. There is a world of difference between the insurance cost of a 20,000-mile water journey and the insurance cost of a 100,000-mile water journey.

The Ming Dynasty's plantations in Southeast Asia provided sufficient goods and raw materials. The stable triangle of Japan, Southeast Asia, and Ming Dynasty remained the top priority of Ming Dynasty's maritime trade interests.

Taking into account the time, distance, profit and other factors of global trade and near-shore trade, in fact, near-shore trade makes more money. After all, the maritime trade environment without large-scale pirates is unique in the world.

The atmosphere was just relatively peaceful, but there was no harmony of being of one mind and having fun together. During this meeting, the powerful and wealthy always felt that there was a layer of separation between them and the emperor.

Seeing His Majesty's calloused hands, the upstarts knew very well that His Majesty always had the people of the country in his heart. When choosing between the people and the powerful and wealthy, His Majesty would unswervingly choose the people instead of them, the upstarts.

"I'm a little tired." Zhu Yijun sent away the powerful local landlords in Shandong, stretched out his hand, and said with a little fatigue.

It is very tiring to talk to these powerful people. They always have hidden meanings in their words and always stop at the point. Zhu Yijun needs to distinguish them carefully to understand their real thoughts. It is more tiring than presiding over ten court meetings!
Wang Chonggu also said with some emotion: "It is indeed not easy to deal with these people."

"That Wang Ci Fu is also a powerful and powerful person. He speaks very directly and never hides anything." Zhu Yijun said with a smile. If we really talk about powerful families, isn't the Wang family more powerful than these people? But Wang Chonggu never said anything with hidden meanings.

"I am old now and have come to terms with it. I am just a rebel by birth anyway. No matter how directly I speak, my sins will not be any more serious than before." Wang Chonggu was very straightforward. He felt relieved after admitting that his past actions were those of a rebel.

"Haha, Wang Ci Fu, you are joking. Everything is beyond our control. With the world as it is, we can only go with the flow." Zhu Yijun didn't care much. He thought for a moment and asked, "What do you think of this group of people, Wang Ci Fu?"

"They will help whoever wins." Wang Chonggu expressed his attitude concisely and pointedly.

Now that Your Majesty is powerful, they are helping the emperor. Once the emperor becomes weak, these new nobles will be no different from the nobles of the old culture, and will even be more ferocious when tearing at the flesh and blood of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Juzheng thought for a moment and said directly: "It's impossible to raise it well."

Wolves can be tamed if they are raised for a little longer. Wolves are just like dogs, there is no difference. Those who cannot be tamed are ungrateful.

Zhang Juzheng and Wang Chonggu were worldly-wise and they saw through the insincerity of these people at a glance. They supported the new policies only to support the interests they would gain from them.

"It's already pretty good. At least they are willing to give up their land." Zhu Yijun felt that this group of people was okay. At least they were willing to keep up with the new policies. They were not enemies, at least not at the moment.

Wang Chonggu said very seriously: "If they are willing to abide by the contract and pay the craftsmen enough for their work, it would be great."

In the context of commodity economy, large-scale free employment production relations are being established. The past contradiction between people and land is transforming into a contradiction between labor and capital, and the payment of labor remuneration and the fairness of labor remuneration have become the focus of contradictions.

"Take your time." Zhu Yijun looked at Wang Chonggu. He was a little anxious. The older he got, the more anxious he became. He wanted to see a stronger Ming Dynasty before he died, so that the posthumous reputation he pursued would be more meaningful.

"Set out tomorrow and continue south." Zhu Yijun gave the order to continue moving forward.

Chen Mo, the Chief Justice, had set out early at the beginning of the year. His main purpose was to make secret visits to check whether the problems discovered by the emperor during his last southern tour still existed. Chen Mo's reports were sent back to the emperor's southern tour one after another.

One of the issues that the emperor was most concerned about, the situation at the Xuzhou coal mines, has been properly resolved. The Xuzhou government spent four years vigorously rectifying the problems discovered by the emperor.

Zhu Yijun still had fresh memories of Xuzhou. There were four prefects of Xuzhou, but none of them could match the original one.

These four Xuzhou prefects had caused great trouble for the entire city. The last time he went to Xuzhou, he saw the following scene:

The road was less than five steps wide, and the people were all pale and had no new shoes. They worked hard to make a living and went north to climb Mount Tai. A porter on Mount Tai carried 120 kilograms of goods up the mountain, making six round trips a day, and was paid only 70 cents, but there were countless people who responded.

In Xuzhou, the people all love vegetables.

Chen Mo discovered that the most obvious change in Xuzhou was that the pale faces of the people were no longer there.

The pale face means that people have been hungry for a long time, lack of food and malnutrition, and their complexion turns yellow or even green. It seems that people cannot survive. Xuzhou is not located in a valley, and most of the people have pale faces, which shows that they are obviously hungry.

The main problem of Xuzhou before was that it could not make big money and looked down on small money. It condoned mergers with local elites from other places and brought all the output back to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which made Xuzhou short of food.

This time, Chen Mo visited many places in Xuzhou, and most people's lives settled down.

Now the Xuzhou government has changed. It has started to focus on small amounts of money, to be very penny-wise, and to do everything and try everything. As a result, it has developed steadily.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty arrived in his jade carriage, and the whistles of two Shengping No. 6 iron horses blew long and long at the station. Regular clanging sounds were heard, and the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, accompanied by civil and military officials and 30,000 soldiers from the Beijing camp, began to march south again.

When the emperor went south, the execution ground outside Chaoyang Gate in Nanjing City of the Ming Dynasty had been completely built, and Wang Xiyuan posted a notice to publicize it, inviting the people of Nanjing to go to the execution ground to watch the execution. The 622 arrested families were also taken to the execution ground outside Chaoyang Gate, so that they could witness the heads falling to the ground with their own eyes before they would confess the problems honestly.

Lin Qing's crimes have basically been announced, and one of them is relatively rare, that is, raising pirates. The Ming navy is invincible, but there are still pirates in the Ming territorial waters, otherwise those opium would not flow into the Ming.

These pirates are entrenched in some small islands of Luzon, Mindanao and Cebu. Their main business is not to rob passing merchant ships. If there is a big noise, Luzon's coastal defense inspectors will be dispatched to find their lair, and the Ming navy will arrive soon.

Their main business is smuggling white goods, while black goods such as opium and ayahuasca are secondary.

Fujian also has this gift. Fujian, with its many mountains and little land, has forced its people to go out to sea to seek wealth and fame. They kowtow to Mazu and then set off.

What these pirates were smuggling was actually coffee. The profits were so huge that even the Ti cavalry who were checking the accounts were surprised. They picked up the goods at Longmen Port in Qinzhou, Guangxi, and shipped them to plantations in Southeast Asia. The coffee was not for human use, but for livestock.

According to Lin Fucheng's research on the plantation economy, livestock were more valuable than slaves on the plantations. At least cattle and horses had a cowshed and stable, while slaves were crowded in cramped rooms. Slaves could not afford high-end goods like coffee.

They eat less, work more, and work tirelessly. During the busy farming season, this plantation will prepare a handful of coffee beans to feed the cows, and during the slack farming season, they will feed the cows some concentrated grain feed to fatten them up.

On the plantation, the average survival time of a cow is higher than that of the Japanese slaves.

However, these pirates would bring back opium and tobacco from the plantations on their return trip, which is why they were classified as pirates.

The trouble with this matter is that these old nobles headed by Lin Qing don't quite know where the pirates' lairs are. In other words, no matter who gets in touch with these pirates, the industrial chain will be quickly restarted. These pirates themselves do not serve the Lin family exclusively.

Pirates and smugglers in Qinzhou, Longmen Port and other places in Guangxi are very active, and because of their proximity to Annan, the pursuit of these pirates and smugglers has become somewhat troublesome.

This is a very dangerous signal, indicating that professional smugglers have appeared in the Ming Dynasty.

These desperate criminals no longer obeyed the orders of powerful and wealthy people, and were no longer thugs or slaves of anyone. Instead, they began to act freely and traveled between Ming Dynasty and Southeast Asia to seek huge profits.

In fact, the imperial court had anticipated this situation. The Ministry of Rites, headed by Shen Li, conducted an in-depth and comprehensive study on how to manage maritime trade during the Song Dynasty, and found the laws of the two Song dynasties, including the "Law on Leakage", "Law on Leakage of Ships", "Customs Guard Restraints", and "Law on Rewards and Punishments for Private Trading with Foreigners".

The laws regarding maritime trade were already very complete during the Song Dynasty, and the Maritime Law attached to the "Da Ming Hui Dian" was a law formulated by integrating these articles. The advantage of a long history is that no matter what you want to do, you can find something from the pile of old papers as a reference.

For example, the law on leaking ships stipulates that if a ship fails to comply with the instructions and someone reports it, the law on leaking ships will apply.

It was a kind of "Gao Min Order" in the field of maritime trade, which allowed people to inform on others. As long as the information was true, the informant could obtain half of the illegal gains.

The reason why laws like the Gao Min Order were promulgated was because smuggling and illegal crossing of the border could not be stopped despite repeated bans, causing serious losses to the Song court's customs duties.

The Ming Dynasty needed a ship's guide and a tax invoice to go out to sea. Obviously, these smugglers who resold coffee had neither a ship's guide nor a tax invoice. However, the sea was different from the land. Everything on land could be traced, and as long as you looked carefully, you could always find the lair of these thieves.

Finding the lair of pirates at sea is as difficult as climbing to the sky.

There wouldn't even be anyone to inform on the pirates, because apart from the captain on the ship who had mastered the star map and needle map, ordinary pirates didn't know where their lair was, and these pirates had more than one lair.

"These idiots have no idea what they have raised!" Wang Xiyuan looked at the case file with an extremely gloomy expression. In order to sell the Iron and Steel Fire Feather to Japan, the seven families headed by the Lin family raised a tiger to harm themselves. These pirates were raised by them, but they soon got completely out of control.

Now these pirates don’t dare to plunder merchant ships, but as they grow stronger, plundering is inevitable.

When there are few people, smuggling some coffee can still feed the subordinates, but when there are more people and the army becomes bloated, more profits are needed to satisfy everyone's appetite. Robbing merchant ships is inevitable. If it is not handled properly, all merchant ships will be forced to become armed merchant ships and increase the weapons on board.

At this point, no one can distinguish between legal and illegal merchants.

England's letters of marque served the same purpose.

The Ming Dynasty's stable and secure offshore trade may be completely ruined because of the selfish desires of these rebels.

This is entirely the fault of the seven Lin families. In the past, there were no pirates who could completely drift on the sea. They had to go ashore because pirates had no boats and they traveled on fixed routes, otherwise they would get lost.

The seven rebel families including the Lin family who colluded with the Japanese smuggled steel and fire feathers for huge profits, and indirectly trained naval masters for these pirates. They handed over star maps and needle maps to the pirates. Even if these naval masters were unskilled, they could still guide the sea routes with the help of star maps and needle maps.

"He is really short-sighted. He destroyed the peace of the world's maritime trade to satisfy his own desires." Zhang Cheng's mouth twitched. As an eunuch of the admiral of the navy, he was really angry. In order to maintain the stability of the offshore trade, the Ming navy paid an extremely high price. Hundreds of coastal defense inspectors died in the blue waves every year.

The situation will soon deteriorate, and these star maps and needle maps will continue to circulate in the hands of desperate criminals. For the navy, the future task of suppressing bandits will become arduous. These pirates are like weeds. They cannot be burned out by wildfires, but will grow again in the spring breeze.

Once the cost of maintaining stability is higher than the benefits, the court will not be able to invest at all costs.

On April 13, the 17th year of the Wanli reign, the sun was shining brightly and the streets of Nanjing were deserted, with countless people gathering outside Chaoyang Gate.

All the servants and stokers of the Yingtian Prefecture were mobilized to maintain order. Meanwhile, notice boards were set up on the way in, all of which listed the crimes of the criminals in the previous trial, written in colloquial language and characters. There was an endless number of notice boards, which was in another sense too numerous to list.

If you simply want to have a disagreement with the emperor and oppose the emperor, it would be fine, then everyone can join in the fun and see how you and the emperor fight. However, the rebellious actions of these rebels harm the interests of everyone.

The Confucius Mansion in Yanzhou is in Shandong, and it is the people of Shandong who suffer; the Donglin Party is in Zhejiang, and it is the people of Zhejiang who suffer. These rebel parties openly collude with the Japanese pirates and may even create a crisis similar to the scale of the Japanese invasion in the Jiajing period, which is really unbearable for the people of Nanjing.

Some scribes had originally planned to copy some of the notes to distribute in newspapers, but when they looked at the endless notice boards, they felt a little desperate. They thought they could not finish copying. There was no way they could finish it.

Most of the people who came to watch the fun gathered at the execution ground. The public execution would be held at three o'clock in the afternoon, and they came to watch the beheading. The crimes had been announced many times by the Yingtian government office, and people were talking about it on the streets. Most people already knew all the details of the case.

Wang Xiyuan was the presiding judge. Zhang Cheng and Luo Bingliang arranged for the criminals, witnesses, physical evidence and documentary evidence to enter the scene. Because the public trial had been held many times, they were very familiar with the process and the scene was well organized.

Soon, a group of criminals led by Lin Qing, wearing shackles and irons and with empty eyes, moved step by step to the execution platform.

Before arriving at the execution platform, Lin Qing still held on to a last glimmer of hope. He felt that his family had not done anything but doing business to make money. At most, they were ganging up on the dissidents and excluding those who were different from them, which was a bit too much.

When the Jin Party and the Zhang Party had a decisive battle, the noise was much bigger than his.

For more than a hundred years, their family has survived like this. Now the emperor says it's not okay? Don't the ministers in the court know how to stop the emperor's tyranny?

But the use of public trial, public sentencing and public execution made Lin Qing despair. Since it was going to be a public trial, even those who wanted to rescue him would not dare to act rashly.

Wang Xiyuan began the interrogation step by step. He selected seventeen serious crimes with sufficient and conclusive evidence from the huge case files and prepared to start the interrogation.

"Originally, according to the old rules, a crime like yours would have meant sending you to the dismemberment house to be made into a specimen, but starting in the fifteenth year of the Wanli reign, His Majesty issued a decree: Ming people are not to be sent to the dismemberment house."

"You are very lucky, otherwise you would experience what it means to be unable to live or die." Wang Xiyuan looked at Lin Qing and seven other criminals. Their families were also on the execution list, but they would not be allowed to appear in court.

The emperor means the whole family, and his words are his.

The only way to treat the symptoms is to remove the dead flesh, which will be painful, but if the dead flesh is not removed completely, the disease will never heal.

In the 15th year of the Wanli reign, after the most dangerous period of the Wanli Restoration, the emperor restrained his brutality a little, and the Jiekuin had sufficient specimens. After all, there were so many Japanese prisoners of war that they could not be used up.

"I plead guilty." Lin Qing sighed heavily and said, "Governor Wang, I want to ask why only we are punished. The 280 academies in Jiangxi did the same thing as us."

"Then did they collaborate with the Japanese?" Wang Xiyuan immediately asked back.

"I don't know." Lin Qing shook his head, but he knew very well that he was not the only one doing this business. Since the Ming Dynasty chose to open the sea, this kind of thing happened yesterday, today, and will happen tomorrow.

Wang Xiyuan heard what Lin Qing said and shook his head and said, "So, you still don't know your guilt. You think that the imperial court is conquering cities and taking over mines, and they get the lion's share; you guys are dealing in steel and fire feathers in the back, and you get a little oil, and the ones who die are just some poor laborers."

Lin Qing said with a look of death: "Yes."

Until now, he still thought so. Those who died were nothing more than poor laborers. The emperor was so angry just to show off his authority. He, his family, and these seven families were unlucky. They were all the price the emperor paid to establish his authority.

Wang Xiyuan suppressed his anger and asked, "Have you ever thought that these soldiers are guarding the mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty and protecting your life of luxury? Have you ever thought that if the Japanese pirates really landed and marched south in large numbers, all of you, including yourself, would be killed by the sword?"

Lin Qing thought about this question very seriously. After a long time, he said, "Since they have received the salary, this is what they should do."

Wang Xiyuan's eyebrows were twisted into a knot, and he continued to ask: "What should you do? You receive a salary from the court, and your family has privileges in terms of laws, taxes, and labor. With these privileges, what should you do?"

Lin Qing was silent for a long time before he said, "It is true that I shouldn't have done those things, but it is not a crime punishable by death. If the court doesn't allow it, I won't do it again in the future."

Wang Xiyuan stopped communicating, but Lin Qing still followed his extremely selfish logic until his death. Below the self, there was a strict hierarchy, and above the self, all beings were equal. He was unwilling to take any responsibility for his actions, and he never repented.

People represented by Lin Qing have received such education since childhood. They do not have to take any responsibility and have lived like this for decades, generation after generation.

Even when death is imminent, I still feel that I am not wrong, or I feel that I am wrong, but the responsibility is not mine, it is the world that is wrong.

As long as the emperor and the people do not rise up, Lin Qing's idea is the reality. Unless the sky and the earth turn upside down, no one can judge them.

(End of this chapter)