Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 290 Coastal Business Gang

"With the departure of the Toyo fleet, if the Toyo Palace really sets up a shipping department in Japan, the business gangs in Susong, Eastern Zhejiang and other places will definitely be unhappy."

In Zuochunfang of Yingtian Mansion, when anxious voices rang out, a group of dignified people wearing Confucian robes appeared in the waterside pavilion of a house.

Their ages ranged from thirty to sixty, headed by a handsome man in his early thirties.

Faced with the question just now, the handsome man sneered: "What's the use of them being unhappy?"

"Back then, the Emperor and the Eastern Palace were cleaning up the officials in Huaixi, Eastern Zhejiang, Susong and other places by clearing out the Jianwen ministers. Now the Emperor and the Eastern Palace also know that the ministers are dissatisfied, but they are just suffering from the fact that no one stands out."

"The more times this happens, the more we should keep a low profile and wait for them to get into trouble."

After the man finished speaking, he raised his glass and took a sip of the wine. Facing him, an official in his thirties with a big face also echoed:

"What Mr. Xie said is right. Officials in eastern Zhejiang, Huaixi, and Jiangdong suffered heavy losses, but now my family of Jiangzuo officials is the sole leader. We should be cautious."

"What Xie Gechen and Shi Qi said is true." After hearing the two men speak, others agreed.

In the Yongle Dynasty, the only person who could be called a cabinet minister was Xie Jin, who had just been canonized as a bachelor of the palace. The person called Shiqi was Yang Yu, whose ancestral home was Ji'an Prefecture, Jiangxi Province and whose nickname was Shiqi.

Those who can sit in this waterside pavilion are all officials from Jiangzuo. Among them, Jie Jin has the highest status. This is not because of his high official position, but because he can participate in the secrets of Wuying Palace.

"Although they keep a low profile, the East Palace obviously wants to train students from Shandong, Liaodong and other places to occupy high positions in the temple."

An official spoke in a low voice, but Jie Jin chuckled and said: "People from the north are ignorant of literature, so just because they want to pass the exams of my Jiangzuo students, it's a bit of a dream."

"It is true." Yang Shiqi also echoed: "The establishment of cultural education cannot be achieved overnight. I have privately asked the Gongsheng students of the Imperial College. Most of the students taught by the East Palace are students from poor backgrounds. Their achievements were not outstanding when they were in the Imperial College. There are no good students from the north."

"What's more, Dong Palace's move has exposed his thoughts. If he wants to recruit Gongsheng from the Imperial College to serve as a tutor, we can also add people to let Jiangzuo Wenfeng occupy a place in the north."

Neither Xie Jin nor Yang Shiqi believed that Zhu Gaoxu could cultivate a group of talents for governing the country in a short period of time.

Places such as Zhejiang, Jiangdong, Jiangzuo and other places have thousands of years of experience to cultivate such a strong learning environment.

Although Zhu Gaoxu provided adequate policies for students in Liaodong and Shandong, he did not have the background of the three places and could not find any teachings that were better than those of the three places.

From this point of view, it would take at least hundreds of years for him to achieve success.

Let alone a hundred years, it is questionable whether his policies can still be implemented after a hundred years.

"The officials of the Taxation Department are very picket-y. If Jiangzuo is found at any time, the people below will also be in some trouble."

An official in his sixties spoke, but Yang Shiqi remained silent after hearing what he said. Xie Jin was still proud: "I just said that the six prefectures in Jiangdong and the business gangs in eastern Zhejiang and other places are eyeing the move to the East. The DPRK and the Central Government do not want to There are too many people who make East Palace a success.”

"It would be great if the voyage to the East can be successful this time. If not, they can just impose harsh tribute trade."

"It's just that no matter what, this matter has nothing to do with us. We just concentrate on planning for the imperial examination and wait for Jiangzuo students to seize the Jinshi seat."

He raised his glass and drank, but his carefree appearance could not dispel everyone's worries.

Who among the people here is not the best among thousands of troops?

On the surface, it was Dong Gong who wanted to go to the East Ocean, but in fact, it was clearly the person above Jindai who wanted to do it.

It was really difficult for father and son to work together to prevent the voyage to the East and subsequent voyages to the West.

But there is nothing wrong with what Xie Jin said. This matter is ultimately a matter between the imperial court and the merchant gangs in Jiangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang and other places, and has nothing to do with them in Jiangzuo.

Instead of worrying about this, it is better to think about how to plan for the vacancies of Jinshi in the next imperial examination.

No matter how powerful the father and son are, they still need people to do things, and with knowledge, they can take the opportunity to take over important positions.

With their thoughts here, the ministers raised their glasses one after another, and the conversation turned from government affairs to poetry and songs.

But when they were worried about their own business, Hu Lun sent by Zhu Gaoxu also brought general news about coastal smuggling.

The candlelight was dim, and limited by the times, even Chunhe Hall, the residence of the prince, looked dim.

Glancing at the book in his hand, Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting in his seat, frowned.

In front of him, Hu Lun, who was given a seat, was waiting for Zhu Gaoxu to speak, but he also knew that His Highness might not speak so quickly.

"The complexity of this matter is indeed beyond my expectations, but it is still within control."

A quarter of an hour later, Zhu Gaoxu put down the book and rubbed his eyebrows.

He had long known that smuggling had begun in the Ming Dynasty's frontier fortress, and Jiangnan would naturally use sea routes to smuggle goods and make huge profits.

But he didn't expect that non-governmental organizations similar to business gangs would already appear in Jiangnan.

Before talking about Jiangnan business gangs and smuggling, we have to start with the tribute system of the Ming Dynasty.

First of all, the tribute trade of the Ming Dynasty not only included official trade, but also allowed officially organized private trade.

For example, the Ming Dynasty had a pretty good attitude towards North Korea, so in addition to tribute trade, there were also private trade activities by envoys.

Envoys from North Korea often brought many special products to the Ming Dynasty for trade when paying tribute.

This situation began in the third year of Hongwu, and now it has become quite large.

According to what Zhu Gaoxu has learned in the past few days, if North Korean envoys are prepared to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty with one cart of goods, then they will bring ten carts of personal belongings to the Ming Dynasty for trade.

This phenomenon made the ministers of the Ming Dynasty look down upon them, so every time North Korea paid tribute, there would always be officials impeaching them, believing that they should be charged commercial taxes.

However, this kind of promotion was usually rejected by Zhu Yuanzhang. The reason was that the Joseon Dynasty was a remote and small country, and it was not easy to travel long distances to the Celestial Kingdom, so there was no need to care too much.

As a result, the private trade of North Korean envoys became more frequent, and they were quickly targeted by the North Korean kings.

Soon, the North Korean leader learned about the private trade of the envoys, and secretly told the envoys to purchase a large amount of prohibited goods, including bow horns used for bows and arrows.

As bow horns were contraband, the Ming Dynasty usually set quotas in tribute trade, so the North Korean kings would specially order the envoys to purchase the bow horns needed by North Korea through smuggling.

However, because the palace lacked money and food, most of the time North Korean envoys would choose to cooperate with wealthy North Korean businessmen in smuggling trade.

In order to obtain qualifications, many wealthy businessmen in North Korea would also use bribes to insert their own people into the mission, go to the Ming Dynasty with the mission officials, and then conduct smuggling trade with private businessmen of the Ming Dynasty in the name of North Korean envoys.

In this way, the North Korean envoys can obtain personal benefits, the North Korean state can obtain a large amount of hard-to-find contraband, and the North Korean businessmen can make a fortune through smuggling trade.

This kind of thing sounds like it is only a North Korean practice, but in fact this kind of practice is prevalent in any country under the Ming Dynasty tribute system, including the Ming Dynasty itself.

When the Ming Dynasty sent envoys on missions, they were also engaged in smuggling trade, but the news rarely appeared in front of the emperor.

However, compared to North Korea's smuggling, Ming's smuggling was somewhat blatant and large-scale.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, due to the free-range management of the Yuan Dynasty, Semu merchants have flowed out a large amount of silver and copper coins during the trade process.

The Jiansemu merchants were not punished for doing this and also made a lot of profits, so a large number of Han Chinese landowners along the coast began to follow suit.

The smuggling of different types of businessmen and Han landlords gradually evolved into a business gang model from the beginning of individual operations.

In order to facilitate smuggling, business gangs usually bribe Jiangnan officials with political donations to make them turn a blind eye.

This situation lasted until Lao Zhu captured Jiangnan and established the Ming Dynasty before being suppressed by the officials.

But even so, coastal business gangs are still running on the smuggling road. After all, the benefits of maritime trade are too great.

Although there is no influx of gold and silver from the Americas, silver from Japan, spices, pearls, corals and other items from South Asia can bring back a lot of profits.

However, as the imperial court began to intervene in overseas trade, the hard days of coastal maritime merchants came.

Due to limited shipbuilding skills, most maritime merchants used lucky boats and horse boats with a cost of about 400 to 1,000 yuan to conduct trade. Even a merchant gang would be difficult to produce hundreds of such ships.

In other words, in terms of transportation capacity alone, the transportation capacity of the Pacific Fleet is basically the sum of dozens of coastal merchant gangs.

If the fleet sails to Japan, Nanyang, and Tianzhu, other merchant gangs will be hungry.

This situation is also consistent with Zhu Gaoxu's impression of the results of the Western voyages.

In his memory, Zheng He brought back hundreds of thousands of kilograms of spices and boxes of coral pearls from his voyages to the West.

The spices brought back by Zheng He from seven voyages to the West were directly received by hundreds of officials from the Yongle period to the Hongzhi period.

It is not difficult to imagine how many spices Zheng He brought back from his seven voyages to the West, and how severely the Ming Dynasty spice market suffered.

It can be said that in less than thirty years, all the money for the next hundred years has been made.

However, if this was not done, it is estimated that there would be no way to maintain so many major projects during the Yongle period.

Fortunately, now that Zhu Gaoxu is here, Ming Dynasty's trade with Nanyang will change from a simple one-off transaction to a long-term transaction with sustainable development.

But before that, he had to keep an eye on these coastal business gangs. It was best to have evidence of their smuggling, and wait for a suitable opportunity to pack them away together with the officials who had received political donations.

"Keep an eye on them. All the evidence is archived. No one is allowed to open it without my order."

After understanding the complex maritime smuggling situation, Zhu Gaoxu also began to give orders to Hu Lun.

Hu Lun bowed in agreement without saying a word. Upon seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also pondered for a moment, and then spoke after thinking:

"The scale of the West Factory needs to be increased. It is best to select orphans from the almshouses for training."

"The treasury of the East Palace still has 160,000 guan. You can use the 100,000 guan first. In short, keep an eye on Shandong in the north, keep an eye on Southern Zhili and Fujian and Zhejiang in the south. By the way, keep an eye on the group in Ji'an Prefecture in Jiangxi. Civil servant."

"I understand." Hu Lun responded. Then seeing that Zhu Gaoxu didn't speak, he stood up and left.

Not long after he left, Yi Shiha, who was avoiding the news, also walked into Chunhe Hall.

He didn't ask anything, he just walked to the table and poured water for the already cold cup of tea in front of Zhu Gaoxu. Zhu Gaoxu watched him pour the tea, and after a while he gradually came out of his thoughts.

When he looked up again, Yishiha had already put the kettle away and was sitting behind the desk and chair where he usually worked.

"How many students are enrolling in Liaodong this year?"

"More than fifty-seven thousand six hundred people."

As soon as Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth, Yishiha answered the question. After finishing speaking, Yishiha also said: "From the first month of this year to now, more than 364,000 people from the three prefectures of Shandong have moved to Liaodong. There were 123,600 people who fled, but they were all intercepted and moved to places to the north of Hanzhou and Kaiping."

"However, after the news of Liaodong Jundi spread, they did not run away. Instead, many people came from Jinan Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture in Shandong Province and were resettled in Qingzhou. The number was no less than 100,000."

"According to the current situation, the population of Liaodong should exceed 500,000 households and 2 million people by the end of the year."

"The grain shipped to Liaodong last year was enough to last until the end of the year."

"That's it..." Yishuha paused for a moment, and then said: "The migration of people in Jinan and Yanzhou Prefecture has been criticized by many gentry and wealthy households, and there are also some in Yanshenggong Prefecture."

"What did father say?" Zhu Gaoxu asked with his eyes closed to calm down.

"His Majesty said that he can rest assured that Shandong affairs will be left to His Highness, but Duke Yansheng's Mansion cannot neglect..."

Yi Shiha carefully stated Zhu Di's attitude, and this was also a small conflict in the political ideas of the two father and son.

After all, Zhu Di is a man of this era. Regarding politically correct things like Confucius and the descendants of Duke Yansheng, Zhu Di cannot completely overthrow it, but has to make concessions.

In comparison, although Zhu Gaoxu respected Confucius, he was dismissive of his descendants.

Not only Yan Shenggong's Mansion, but also Jiangnan, and the entire feudal officials under the old system.

If he didn't have enough political capital now to mobilize a sufficient number of political officials to defeat these guys, he would have taken action long ago.

He didn't know what Xie Jin and others were thinking, but even if he knew, he would probably just sneer.

The officials he wants are not the kind of "talents" they claim to be high-minded, but new officials who can implement his policies and master elementary school mathematics.

Although these "mass-produced" officials are not as capable as this group of "talents" on their own, their replaceability is enough for the Ming Dynasty to maintain a relatively clean administrative team.

As for future corruption of the administrative team, that is not something Zhu Gaoxu should consider.

Throughout the ages, how many people can predict what will happen decades later?

Let alone decades later, they will not be able to control even what happens after death.

Could Ying Zheng have expected that the Qin Dynasty he established would fall three years after his death?

Could Li Zhi have expected that after his death, his 60-year-old queen would ascend the throne and proclaim herself emperor seven years later?

Could Zhao Kuangyin have expected that after his death, Zhao Guangyi would leave his army and the donkey cart drift away?

Could Zhu Yuanzhang have expected that after his death, Zhu Yunwen would be overthrown by Zhu Di and Zhu Di would become emperor?

Could Zhu Di have expected that the good sons and saints he expected would completely overthrow his political views and abandon the policies of Jiaozhi and appeasement of Mobei?

Zhu Gaoxu didn't think he could expect something that even this group of people could not expect.

All he has to do is take over the team and pass it on.

As for how long his system can make the Ming Dynasty prosper, and whether it will lead to the destruction of the Ming Dynasty, this is not the scope of his consideration.

What's more, with the current productivity of the Ming Dynasty, it is very difficult to open up the people's wisdom to all the people.

Whether productivity can be improved depends on the development of basic science and mathematics in the future. He can add fuel to the fire, but he is not omniscient and omnipotent.

He had experience with matchlocks, flintlocks, and cannons, so he was able to make them with the help of Ming craftsmen.

But steam engines, internal combustion engines...

Shaking his head, he stopped thinking about these things. Instead, he gathered his thoughts and put his hope on Zheng He, Yang Zhan, and Yang Qiu.

"Listening to what you said, the second son's temperament has indeed changed a lot, but he still lacks a little respect for Yan Shenggong's mansion."

In the Qianqing Palace, when Zhu Di was sitting in his middle coat and saying this, Ji Gang, who was kneeling on the gold bricks, was silent.

This kind of topic is not something he can talk about casually.

"The second one is staring at Yan Shenggong's mansion and at the same time staring at the fleet and coastal merchant gangs heading to the East. He has bigger ideas than me."

After getting up and walking to the window, looking at Miyagi City with a few lights in the darkness, Zhu Di looked up at the bright moon again.

In fact, he didn't know the virtues of Yanshenggongfu. Not only him, many kings knew it clearly.

They were somewhat afraid of humiliating Yanshenggong Mansion, let alone destroying this sign.

"As for the matters in Mobei, Uzang, and the Western Regions, please let the people below keep an eye on them so that I can make adjustments at any time."

"I accept the order!"

Zhu Di turned his back to Ji Gang and gave an instruction, and then stopped talking.

Seeing this, Ji Gang got up and left the Qianqing Palace.

After he left, Zhu Di walked back to his seat and sat down.

Wang Yan, who was the personal eunuch and the eunuch in charge of rituals, walked out, bowed to Zhu Di and then said:

"Your Majesty, the West Factory set up in the East Palace seems to be somewhat inferior to the Jin Yiwei."

"It has only been a few years since it was founded. This is not surprising. It will be easy to get on the right track after two years." Zhu Di stroked his beard and glanced at Ji Gang's back, thoughtfully:

"It's just that when it gets on the right track and becomes bigger, someone will add sand to it."

"You said there are so many people in Jinyiwei, how many of them are my spies, and how many of them are my spies, or the spies of others?"

"I don't know what I dare say." Wang Yan honestly served Zhu Di tea and poured water, shaking his head and not daring to guess.

Seeing this, Zhu Di sighed: "You are brave on the battlefield, but when you come to the inner court, you are afraid of wolves in front and tigers in back."

"The water in the capital is muddy, and I just want to do my duty." Wang Yan responded, but Zhu Di did not continue.

Not long after, Zhu Di went to the palace to rest, but when he sat next to Xu, he felt something.

"You said that half of the soldiers and horses in the world are in the second hand. Although I trust the second brother, I don't trust his generals."

"I've been thinking about it recently and am planning to send eunuchs to supervise the army in each capital. What do you think?"

As soon as Zhu Di opened his mouth, Xu, who was sitting on the bed and massaging his shoulders, stopped and said, "Logically speaking, women in the harem are not allowed to participate in politics."

"But since you are the one asking me today, I will have a good talk with you."

"From the perspective of ancient and modern times, all those who use eunuchs to do politics are in the middle and late dynasties, and eunuchs are only interested in profit. If they can't get benefits from below, they will definitely add fuel and jealousy to make you misunderstand the generals below."

"The eunuchs around me are not bad." Zhu Di didn't think so. Instead, he spoke favorably of the eunuchs around him: "Zheng He, Wang Yan, and Hou Xian are all good."

"But what about Huang Yan, Ma Qi, Shan Shou and the others?" Xu asked back, and Zhu Di was speechless.

These eunuchs were also eunuchs who had fought with Zhu Di, but they loved to take advantage.

It would be fine if he stayed in the palace on weekdays, but if he served as a local supervisor, he would probably make people unhappy.

"I still don't recommend you use them." Xu shook his head and said, "If you use them to supervise the army, you will inevitably make Gao Xu unhappy."

"I told you when we went south that you, father and son, must be honest and honest. If either party has his own intentions, he will be provoked in the future."

"In Yingtian Mansion, there are quite a few people who want to sow discord between your father and son. You should maintain the status quo and not create extra problems."

In the whole world, Xu is probably the only one who dares to say this to Zhu Di, and Zhu Di doesn't know how to refute it.

"I'll think about it again. Besides, I don't think the second child will be unhappy either."

Zhu Di did not reject Xu's suggestion, but said consciously: "Isn't the second child also using it and losing it?"

"That Yishiha was trained by the second brother." Mrs. Xu smiled and squeezed Zhu Di's shoulders. When Zhu Di heard this, he was dissatisfied and said: "Zheng He, Wang Yan and Hou Xian under my command are also good."

Seeing that Zhu Di was not convinced, Xu could only increase the strength in her hands, but Zhu Di was thick-skinned, so he didn't feel pain, but felt quite comfortable, and couldn't help but groan.

Seeing this, Mrs. Xu was helpless and could only say: "After all, there are only three of them, but there are dozens of supervisors. Can you find dozens of such virtuous officials?"

"This..." Zhu Di touched his beard. He really couldn't find dozens of such virtuous officials.

"If you use the three of them, I don't think Gao Xu will be unhappy. After all, Gao Xu has a good relationship with Zheng He and Wang Yan, and Hou Xian can also stand the test."

"But if you use Huang Yan, Ma Qi, Shan Shou and others, I'm afraid Gao Xu will have a fight with you."

"He dares!" When Xu said that Zhu Gaoxu would quarrel with him, Zhu Di immediately acted like a father.

But when he thought of Zhu Gaoxu's tall and tall figure, he still felt guilty for some reason.

At this moment, he couldn't help but regret, thinking that if he had known better, he would have hit Zhu Gaoxu more when he was young, but now he has no chance.

"Haha..." When Mrs. Xu saw Zhu Di pretending to be dignified, she just stopped squeezing him and reached out to pat him on the shoulder:

"Go to rest early, you have to go to court early tomorrow."

Hearing this, Zhu Di groaned and lay down on the bed. Xu got out of bed and washed her hands. When she came back, she heard Zhu Di snoring.

Listening to the snoring, she smiled and walked into the Babu bed to rest...

(End of this chapter)