The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 174 Mr. Ge asks for advice

Sun Chengzong also nodded repeatedly, "When I read Wang Jianyang's Tianyan Lun and Portuguese History before, I was in awe of Wang Sheng's writing. The eloquence of this article is even better than the previous book."

No matter how the court and court discussed Wang Wenlong's article, in Sun Chengzong's view, Wang Wenlong's article was indeed well written.

In Sun Chengzong's opinion, the advantage of this article is not how gorgeous the rhetoric is or how many allusions it cites, but that Wang Wenlong's thinking is rigorous enough and he will not commit the same problem as Li Sancai's random talk.

When Wang Wenlong wrote this article, he was also emotionally moved. With such a heavy history placed in the words, no matter how simple he wrote, his words would still be full of majesty.

The drowsy literati who read in their study rooms may think that Li Sancai's memorial is the best one, with every word being exquisite, making them cry. But for people like Sun Chengzong and Fang Shoushi who have actually done things, Wang Wenlong's articles are better than those of others. How many times more than Li Sancai's colorful words.

It immediately reminded Sun Chengzong of the amazing feeling he had when reading "History of Portugal"

This is because books like "The Wealth of Nations" are far less eye-catching than "History of Portugal" and therefore do not spread as quickly. Until now, scholars in most places in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have not heard of this book by Wang Wenlong, otherwise If Sun Chengzong had read "The Wealth of Nations" at this time, I am afraid that he would be even more impressed by Wang Wenlong's writing.

……

At this time, the discussion in the capital was already extremely intense.

The conflicts discussed by everyone focus on two points: Should taxes be increased on maritime merchants? If the tax collection is diverted to overseas trade and issuance of ships, will the emperor have to withdraw the eunuchs?

Just like Emperor Wanli told his ministers that if they continued to make noise, the appointment of the crown prince would be delayed for another year. He was too familiar with the mentality of these civil servants, and his words were ambiguous. He did not promise anything, but he also gave up what the civil servants expected. Policies are placed on the horizon, as if they are within reach in a blink of an eye, to keep them hanging.

This was the first time that the emperor relented on the tax policy. Officials were afraid that Emperor Wanli would shrink back again, so they neither dared to object, but were unwilling to support it.

You were supposed to reduce taxes, but you ended up raising taxes. Most officials in Jiangnan, represented by the Donglin Party and the Zhejiang Party, did not support it.

This was an issue that clearly divided the Jiangnan scholar-bureaucrat class.

Small businessmen support this, but large merchants who are capable of sea trade know that once these issues are passed, they will put heavy shackles on themselves. In the future, sea trade will not only face high taxes, but also pay for shipping and other costs. .

In addition, ship guides are sold to all the people - small businessmen who obtain ship guides may also gather together to join forces and go to sea, which will definitely intensify competition in maritime trade.

The contradiction between big businessmen and small businessmen was also revealed in the court.

Jiangnan officials feel that the emperor has really lost money. Wouldn't you just reduce the tax? Why pass this hot potato onto sea trade again? It happens that there is some truth in what he said, which makes it even more troublesome.

Fortunately, this manuscript was written by Zhusheng from Changzhou, a place naturally full of political correctness. The names of Gu Xiancheng and Gao Panlong were both on the list of gatherings, and there were not many comments attacking Wang Wenlong.

And small businessmen are not without their backing - some local officials even think the method in this announcement is good.

They said that the emperor should be allowed to collect taxes from maritime merchants. It would be a great good to remove the local mine supervisors, tax collectors and numerous banknotes.

The subsequent discussions basically revolved within this framework. There was no result in the bickering, but Wang Wenlong's name was made known to many people.

Just like when Xu Wei wrote "Into the White Deer Biao" for Hu Zongxian and was praised by Emperor Jiajing, he instantly became famous all over the world.

Having a scholar's writings praised by the royal family is definitely a first-class way to become famous. With the discussion in the world, Wang Wenlong's name flew all over Jiuzhou in an instant like it had wings, and it was impossible not to be noticed.

……

When Xu Xueju walked into the editorial office of "Xunbao", Wang Wenlong was holding a rice bowl, eating rice and reading the newspaper.

The new issue of "Xun Bao" is about to be released, and Wang Wenlong and the editors are all staying in the editorial department to work overtime - "Xun Bao" has become a rare unit in this era that requires regular overtime work.

"Master Fantai, please come in. Have you had your meal?"

"It's no use yet, let's get together here." Xu Xueju walked into the room and handed over a document. Wang Wenlong glanced at it and knew that it was another eight hundred miles urgent matter.

"Xu Xueju said: This is a letter from Mr. Shen Ge, asking Jianyang how to deal with the situation at this time?"

This was the result of Wang Wenlong's sudden rise in fame. His proclamation aroused a lot of discussion in the court. The controversy was so great that all officials needed to think twice when dealing with opinions related to him.

Shen Yiguan and Xu Xueju were both from Lanxi, Zhejiang. Shen Yiguan simply used his personal relationship to ask Wang Wenlong the question directly, which was also a sign of respect for Wang Wenlong.

Wang Wenlong quickly put down the bowl, wiped his hands and took it.

"Sir, sit down for a moment." Shen Yiguan's letter last time was written to Xu Xueju and Wang Wenlong, but now this letter was written directly to Wang Wenlong through Xu Xueju's hand.

Wang Wenlong must also pay attention to the letter from Mr. Shen Ge.

Xu Xueju didn't rush him and sat across the table from Wang Wenlong. Wang Pingbao went to order Xu Xueju's meal.

Now the editorial office of "Xunbao" has its own small kitchen, which can be used for frying and frying. The food will be served soon. The food is good. Today's meal is fried sea fish, oyster soup, steamed pork with old wine, and dried sweet potato rice. Xu Xueju was eating while waiting for Wang Wenlong to think. He was very good at eating. When eating saury, he would clean the bones and put them on the plate one by one.

After a long while, Wang Wenlong raised his head and said: "No one thought that this article would spread. It is estimated that the heat will dissipate in a short time."

The heat will dissipate, of course, but the impact will certainly be profound.

None of the policies in this article can be implemented in a short period of time, but it has already aroused public discussion. In the future, as the conflicts in the Ming Dynasty become increasingly acute, many of the contents will definitely be mentioned again and again.

Don't talk about the Chongzhen period of Tianqi, just say that Emperor Wanli can still live for twenty years at this time, and the entire Ming Dynasty who sent eunuchs to collect taxes for twenty years will not want it.

If the eunuchs are allowed to collect taxes for more than ten years, Wang Wenlong's method will definitely become more and more attractive.

But it goes without saying at this moment. Xu Xueju and Wang Wenlong also made the same judgment at this moment. He nodded and said: "Presumably what Shen Ge Lao asked was about the practices during this period of time."

Wang Wenlong said: "There are a lot of discussions in the court now, just because the Holy Father used my announcement to prevaricate all the officials. If Mr. Shen Ge wants to clear himself of suspicion, it is better to go to the court to talk about the abandoned mine supervisor."

Xu Xueju agreed very much, but hesitantly said: "But this matter must be carefully considered. It would be fine if it were done by someone else, but when Mr. Shen Ge comes to do it...it will be extremely difficult."

Wang Wenlong couldn't help laughing when he heard this, and Xu Xueju also smiled bitterly.

Of course, Shen Yiguan should go to Shu to express his position as a civil servant at this time. Anyone would do this.

In fact, if it were not for the fact that Zhao Zhigao was too old to write anything, I am afraid that Zhao Zhigao would have written this article long ago. Opposing the mine supervisors and tax collectors was not only politically correct for officials at this time, but also objectively speaking, it was definitely a good policy for the people.

Objectively speaking, there are absolutely everything wrong with civil servants in the world, and no matter how sanctimonious and cunning the Donglin Party is, it cannot change the fact that Emperor Wanli's mining supervision policy is a bad government.

The taxes collected by Emperor Wanli were not spent on the three Wanli levies - most of the money spent on the three Wanli levies were money and food from the treasury. The internal treasury did not spend much money on these three things, and the three Wanli levies spent The collection will be completed this year, but Wanli’s mining tax will still be collected for another twenty years...

Most of Wanli's money was spent by himself at home.

In this era, the royal family spent [-] to [-] taels to build a main hall, which was considered very economical. A hundred years later, Qianlong spent more than [-] taels to build the main hall of the Summer Resort, using fine nanmu wood.

The actual area of ​​the built main hall is not as large as the sales department of a real estate developer in an N-tier city in later generations.

What is the concept of seventy thousand taels in comparison? The quite wealthy Songjiang Mansion only turned in [-] taels of gold and silver a year.

——In a wealthy state capital, the annual tax money of the people is enough to build a palace with the size of the sales department, not including the cost of interior decoration.

The productivity of these days is too backward, and the money used for slightly higher-end consumption is beyond the imagination of future generations.

Emperor Wanli didn't go out, but he spent a lot of money like this.

There are large expenses recorded in history: [-] million was spent on repairing the Dingling Mausoleum, [-] million was spent on canonizing a prince, and an average birthday was spent on more than [-] taels, not to mention repairing the house and raising small animals.

The ten-year mining tax from the [-]th to the [-]th year of Wanli's reign was only about [-] million taels of gold and silver, which was not enough for him to spend. He had to regularly move the money from the treasury to the interior. Spending in the library.

The burden on the people was far greater than this. For example, in Shanxi where Fang Shoushi was the governor, later historians calculated that the Shanxi tax eunuch Sun Chao collected at least [-] taels in taxes every year, of which he only handed over to Emperor Wanli. Sixteen thousand taels, and the remaining [-] taels were all embezzled by him and his men.

The Sun Dynasty was already pretty good, just because Shanxi was too poor, and the amount of corruption by eunuchs in the rich southern provinces was far from comparable to the Sun Dynasty.

Emperor Wanli ignored this and even protected the eunuchs, just to make it easier to make money from the people.

The key is that he doesn't need to make any money at all. As long as he reduces his extravagant consumption, he can actually greatly reduce the burden on the people.

Even as long as the money can be tilted a little more towards Liaodong, the Battle of Saarhu will not be like that.

The principle is this principle, and the things are also these things.

But it’s hard to persuade.

Ge Laoshen has always been a cunning character.

Shen Guangyuan must have been afraid that the article would be poorly written and offend the emperor, so he would rather not say anything.

Wang Wenlong spread out the manuscript paper and said: "I will lay out some words and see if I can submit it to the elder."

Xu Xueju was chewing rice in his mouth, watching Wang Wenlong write quickly. He quickly wrote down the three arguments of "maintaining the status quo, sending envoys, and expediency" on the manuscript, and then began to expand on each argument.

(End of this chapter)