Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1739 Untitled 2
In his report, Ma Runchuan also explained his views on the construction of an arsenal in Shandong. He believed that although the imperial court had always raised the banner of advancing overseas, in reality, it had been making little progress and there were too many restrictions and rules, which were not conducive to overseas development.

The most important point here is the issue of allowing overseas companies to possess weapons, which Ma Runchuan considers a core issue.

After all, the situation overseas is very complex, unlike in the Central Plains, where various forces and all sorts of people mingle.

Therefore, if you don't have some equipment to do business in such a place, you'll feel insecure when talking to people!

Therefore, Ma Runchuan believed that if they wanted to enter overseas markets on a large scale, they should provide these merchant companies with a large number of weapons to arm them before the Daqian Navy had formed a strong combat capability.

It was with this idea in mind that Ma Runchuan was willing to build an arms factory in Qilu, so as to use the arms factory to provide a sales channel for the Qilu Steel Plant which was expanding its production capacity.

Ye Mingsheng admitted that what Ma Runchuan said did make some sense. Currently, if these businesses want to acquire weapons, they first need to be recommended by the local government, then pass the assessment of the local judicial commissioner, and finally report to the Ministry of Justice, which will then conduct separate assessments by the Ministry of Justice and the General Affairs Office.

Passing the assessments of three departments will grant you the corresponding licenses, allowing you to legally possess weapons. During these processes, some public relations expenses are inevitable, since some people are making a fortune from this.

However, reaching this point doesn't mean everything is settled. Every year, the local provincial judicial commissioner and the General Affairs Bureau conduct inspections to ensure everything is under control. It's foreseeable that even if everything is compliant, the provincial judicial commissioner's clerks and the General Affairs Bureau's agents won't easily let the business owners pass through; bribes and "tea money" will certainly be indispensable…
Even if all these procedures are completed, the weapons that can be obtained are basically outdated weapons that have been phased out by the army, and they are not equipped with armor. The number is at most a few hundred, and they will basically not possess more than a thousand.

So for those owners, they spent a lot of money to acquire a batch of weapons, but in reality, they did not form a very strong fighting force. With these people and these guns, it was not enough to protect their interests from being violated when facing those native tribes and pirates.

Therefore, they were not very willing to buy guns from these intermediaries. Rather than arming themselves, they preferred to maintain good relations with the pirates and local tribes to ensure that their goods were not violated. Buying guns was considered a losing proposition.

This is also a problem that Daqian is currently facing when it goes global!
Ye Mingsheng had actually heard about this problem before, and he had his own reasons for not taking action to solve it.

The most important reason is that these trading companies are not entirely controlled by the Great Qian Dynasty. They have branches throughout various regions, and their business in the Great Qian is only a part of their overall business empire. While they outwardly appear subservient to the court, they all harbor their own ulterior motives…

If that were all, Ye Mingsheng could tolerate it. After all, these businesses were essentially the prototypes of multinational corporations. As Old Ma had said, the profit-driven nature of money meant that these owners had no concept of a nation; they only cared about their own interests. This was a reality that had been verified countless times.

Ye Mingsheng could accept this somewhat unfortunate reality. He never treated these people as his property or sought absolute control over them. He could accept that these people had their own ideas.

What Ye Mingsheng could not accept was that these trading companies had many intricate connections with pirate tribes, and the two sides were even highly intertwined, forming a relationship where they shared both prosperity and adversity.

In fact, Ye Mingsheng initially intended to arm these merchant houses on a large scale, but he soon discovered that the weapons sold to these merchant houses quickly flowed into Southeast Asia and fell into the hands of some indigenous peoples and pirates, thus strengthening their power.

Ye Mingsheng was furious about this and ordered the Joint Investigation Department to investigate which business had the audacity to do so.

However, the results of the investigation were very disappointing for Ye Mingsheng. Selling weapons to indigenous peoples and pirates in Southeast Asia was not an isolated phenomenon of a few companies. In fact, most companies engaged in overseas trade had such practices to varying degrees.

Following this lead, the Joint Investigation Department continued its in-depth investigation and discovered that many of these local tribesmen and pirates had invested in the trading companies. Some had even formed in-law relationships, with their children already grown up – the connections were incredibly close.
Discovering this situation made Ye Mingsheng realize that the business world in Jiangnan was more complex than he had imagined. Minor issues would not solve the problem; a major overhaul was needed. Some bad apples had to be punished so that the business world in Jiangnan could develop better.

Despite having such thoughts in his mind, Ye Mingsheng had to suppress them due to the financial difficulties the imperial court had faced in recent years.

After all, the imperial court now needs the taxes from Jiangnan, which account for nearly half of the court's revenue, and overseas trade is the main source of Jiangnan's taxes.

Therefore, if Ye Mingsheng were to take drastic measures against the Jiangnan business community, it would have far-reaching consequences, and he had no choice but to consider the matter carefully.

Ye Mingsheng had discussed this with several important ministers in the cabinet, including Cui Shao, Minister of Revenue; Gu Sansi, Minister of Personnel; and Liu Ning, Minister of Justice. They all disagreed with taking such drastic measures against Jiangnan now, believing that if these businesses were to be dealt with, they might be ruined and the owners might not bring back the money they earned overseas.

If there are problems with taxes and fees in Jiangnan, the normal operation of the imperial court cannot be guaranteed, and in the worst case, even the salaries of government officials cannot be paid.

Therefore, they advised Ye Mingsheng not to rush into this matter, but to wait until Jingchu, Guanzhong, Yongliang, and other places resumed normal production and the court's dependence on taxes from Jiangnan was reduced before taking action.

This would greatly reduce the negative impact on the imperial court. Ye Mingsheng deeply agreed with these people's suggestions, believing them to be the result of mature and strategic thinking. The deep-seated collusion between these merchant houses, pirates, and local tribes hadn't developed overnight, so resolving the problem couldn't be rushed…

In response to this question, Ye Mingsheng also consulted Murong Yuliang, the highest-ranking official in the Jiangnan region and the governor of Jianghuai.

Murong Yuliang also had his own views on the issue of collusion between trading companies, indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia, and pirates, which Ye Mingsheng mentioned.

He believed that these merchant houses did not subjectively desire such deep collusion with these pirates and local tribes; rather, objective circumstances forced them to form such a profound bond. Even if these Jiangnan merchant houses acquired weapons, the armed forces they could muster would only number a few thousand men at most. Such an army was insufficient against the local tribes and pirates, and it was unrealistic to expect to fight them with such limited forces. Therefore, to ensure their trade in Southeast Asia was not harassed or threatened, some collusion and alliances were a practical choice.

Therefore, Murong Yuliang believed that even if Ye Mingsheng carried out major surgery on the Jiangnan business community and eliminated all the bad apples who colluded with the local tribes and pirates in the South Seas, it would only be a temporary solution. As long as the Daqian navy could not provide sufficient protection for Daqian's cargo ships in the South Seas, these businesses would have no choice but to continue to collude with those local tribes and pirates in order to do business and make money.

Therefore, the only way to fundamentally solve this problem is for the Daqian navy to have a sufficient presence in the South China Sea, so that Daqian's cargo ships can rely on them.

Only in this way can the problem be solved once and for all; otherwise, it's merely treating the symptoms, not the root cause, and simply replacing the old with the new...
Murong Yuliang's words gave Ye Mingsheng a lot of inspiration, allowing him to think about the problem from a deeper level.

Realizing the crux of the matter, Ye Mingsheng also abandoned the idea of ​​selling weapons to the company on a large scale.

He regarded Southeast Asia as a priority for the overseas development of the Great Qian Dynasty. Therefore, some local tribes and pirates in Southeast Asia were potential enemies. Allowing them to obtain weapons from merchants would be tantamount to aiding the enemy and making it more difficult for him to control Nanyang in the future.

After Ye Mingsheng changed his attitude, things turned out the way they are now, with more reviews and more procedures. This is the origin of the rules and regulations that Ma Runchuan mentioned.

The information about the collusion between the Jiangnan merchants and the pirates of the South Seas was a high-level secret of the Daqian court, known only to Ye Mingsheng, cabinet members, and some investigators from the Joint Investigation Department. Therefore, Ma Runchuan was probably unaware of this situation, which is why he proposed this idea.

As the saying goes, ignorance is no excuse, but Ye Mingsheng would not agree to Ma Runchuan's idea of ​​building an arsenal in Qilu and expanding the production capacity of Qilu Steel Plant.

Given the overall stable external situation, hastily building new arsenals would be a waste of resources and manpower, and an uneconomical approach.

Ye Mingsheng felt that Qilu Steel Plant's annual steel production capacity of 100,000 jin was already quite good, and that the blacksmith shops in the countryside should be given some work.

The Great Qian Dynasty has not yet reached the point where it must eliminate outdated production capacity...
Although he did not agree with Ma Runchuan's idea of ​​building an arsenal and expanding steel production capacity, Ye Mingsheng thought Ma Runchuan's idea of ​​a charity conference was very good.

Many gentry and landlords aspired to leave their mark on history, so if they could spend a few hundred taels of silver to have a statue built in their honor in the public school or have a building named after them, Ye Mingsheng thought this was quite an attractive thing for those gentry.

Ye Mingsheng felt that this could be summarized as a successful experience and promoted throughout the entire Daqian region as a means of raising funds for public schools in various places.

After inspecting the area for so long, Ye Mingsheng generally found that public schools in various places were in dire need of funding. Many prefectures and counties regarded public schools as a burden. If it weren't for the strict targets imposed by the imperial court, no prefect or magistrate would be willing to spend too much energy and money on public schools.

To be honest, given the current situation, Ye Mingsheng's idea of ​​eradicating illiteracy in the world in one or two decades is basically impossible to achieve.

Therefore, Ye Mingsheng is also considering incorporating the education situation, including that of public schools, into the Ministry of Personnel's assessment criteria for government officials.

Ye Mingsheng believes this will greatly increase these G members' attention to education and morality, thereby allowing public schools to obtain more educational resources.

However, there were some dissenting voices within the imperial court regarding this idea.

These people believe that resources are ultimately finite; investing more resources in education inevitably means less in other areas. The current free education in public schools is already unprecedented, and the resources invested in education are already substantial. If the imperial court were to issue decrees requiring local governments to invest even more, it would inevitably increase the burden on local authorities…
Ye Mingsheng felt that this idea made some sense, so it would be great if the public school could generate its own revenue, which would alleviate some of the burden.

Ye Mingsheng had thought about this, but he couldn't figure out a good solution. After all, public schools are purely public welfare activities and it's hard to make a profit. Without government funding, they simply couldn't continue operating.

Ma Runchuan's approach to this charity event can be seen as pointing out a method for Ye Mingsheng.

Based on Ma Runchuan's successful experience, holding a charity conference once a year and raising one or two thousand taels of silver from the pockets of local gentry and wealthy merchants would not be a problem.

Although this sum of money is not much, it has a certain degree of sustainability and can be put to good use to buy more books for the children in the public school.

Reduce the number of people sharing a book from seven or eight to three or four, or add a bowl of thin porridge and some radishes and cabbage to their daily meals so they can eat their fill.

Ye Mingsheng's only disagreement was that Ma Runchuan gave all the money he raised through the charity conference to Licheng Public School, which resulted in Licheng Public School having excellent conditions, while the situation of other public schools in Qilu remained unchanged.

Ma Runchuan, however, believed that he had not done anything wrong. He argued that if the one or two thousand taels of silver were divided equally among the dozens of public schools in Qilu, the silver would be negligible and would not have much effect. However, if it were all given to Licheng Public School, it would greatly improve the educational conditions of Licheng Public School and enable it to cultivate more talents!