Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 668 World Affairs

Pei Yuan knew that everyone was probably concerned about him and Commander Han, so he simply said, "Yesterday was the wedding of Commander Han and myself, and we were all very grateful for the help from all of you brothers."

"We've been too busy to thank you all individually. When Commander Han comes to the capital again, my wife and I will have a good drink with you all."

Hearing Pei Yuan say this, many people couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Although Pei Yuan spoke vaguely and glossed over Han Qianhu's departure, it seems that the two are far from reaching the point of marital breakdown.

Not getting married is a good thing, not getting married is a good thing indeed.

Once the morale of the troops was stabilized, Pei Yuan looked at his underlings and realized his own identity.

These days I've been so worried about the country and its people that I've barely had time for my own job.

I wanted to inquire, but for a while I had no clue what to do.

Fortunately, Yun Weilin returned just then.

Yun Weilin behaved moderately in this incident, but maintained a good stance, and even got beaten up.

Pei Yuan was very satisfied with him.

Yun Weilin had already heard about Han Qianhu's departure from the capital from the messenger sent by Yun Buxian, but he was still gratified to see Pei Yuan sitting alone in the hall.

Regardless of what others think, at least in Yun Weilin's eyes, Commander Han, who took the initiative to retreat, ultimately appeared somewhat weak.

This also means that the Yun family is on the side of the strong.

The Yun family had been playing both sides, and even had some ambiguous relations with the Northern Garrison Command in the past. Now, the more they invested, the more they won, which truly put Yun Weilin at ease.

After Yun Weilin paid his respects, Pei Yuan inquired about recent affairs from Yun Weilin.

Yun Weilin immediately began to recount his achievements since taking office.

Previously, the Thousand Households Office had caused a major disturbance in the capital. Relying on the remaining power of Pei Yuan's confrontation with Grand Secretary Liang Chu, they confiscated the property of more than ten temples and restored the commission on incense offerings from more than five hundred temples.

Pei Yuan also used this abundant financial resources, along with the troops he had brought from Xuzhou, to establish the Northern Bureau, which originally consisted of only a handful of people.

With abundant financial and human resources, the Northern Bureau of the Thousand Household Office has entered a positive cycle of development.

Even though Pei Yuan gradually withdrew those elite troops from Xuzhou, Tantai Fangtu and Sikong Sui, with their ample financial resources, filled all the vacancies by replacing some Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) with veteran military households from the Qianhu garrison.

However, compared to the previous elite troops from Xuzhou, their combat strength has definitely declined significantly.

After Yun Weilin took over as the garrison commander a few days ago and became Pei Yuan's second-in-command, the expansion was immediately restarted.

He knew all the temples in Beijing inside and out, even better than many of the monks in the Buddhist Registry.

Furthermore, the high monk foundation led by Yun Weilin has created many conflicts of interest with him among temples, so he still has to give them some face.

As a result, some temples that could make money were brought under the control of the Thousand Household Office.

Originally, the Qianhu Office had only a slight surplus in its finances, but now it is estimated that it will be able to save up a considerable amount of money this month.

Pei Yuan was very satisfied with Yun Weilin's detailed explanation and then asked, "Besides these, are there any other evil cults or sorcerers causing trouble throughout the Nine Provinces?"

Yun Weilin replied, "Apart from the incident involving Shi Buyi, the deputy director of the Buddhist Registry, a few days ago, everything else is relatively peaceful."

The matter involving Shi Buyi was implicated in a series of corruption cases. In order to cut off the clues for the investigation, Chen Yiping, the head of the Temple Sacrifice Bureau, even committed suicide.

Pei Yuan's Zhenxie Qianhu Office could nominally be involved, but the current intensity of the investigation meant it was no longer something they could easily get involved in.

Pei Yuan replied, "That matter involves the Ministry of Rites and has nothing to do with us anymore. Let the higher-ups handle it slowly."

Speaking of the Ministry of Rites, Pei Yuan thought of Mao Ji, who had returned home to observe mourning for his parents.

So many days have passed, I wonder if Yan Song is still persisting in mourning at the grave.

Pei Yuan then said to Yun Weilin, "Send someone to Mao Ji's house in Shandong to see if Yan Song is there. If Yan Song is there, tell him not to return to Jiangxi yet, but to go directly to the capital. I, the commander, will need his help."

Once the matter in Shandong has been settled, it will be time for Wang Qiong to explain the "Single Whip Law" to the emperor.

This "Single Whip Law" was far more complex, involving both "money law" and "tax law," making it much more troublesome than Liu Jin's earlier minor reforms.

Without the encouragement of a strategist like Yan Song, Zhu Houzhao, who had suffered greatly during the reform movement, might not have been so determined to challenge those people again.

After Yun Weilin agreed, Pei Yuan asked him, "By the way, speaking of the Ministry of Rites, has the newly appointed Director of Ceremonies, Jia Yong, taken the initiative to interact with us?"

Originally, the duties of the Thousand Household Office were to liaise with the Ministry of Rites' Department of Ceremonies.

At that time, Liu Pang was the Director of the Ceremonial Affairs Department of the Ministry of Rites, and he had a fairly good relationship with Pei Yuan. Later, Liu Pang went to the Ministry of Rites to serve as a Director of the Reception Department, and he even went to Pei Yuan for help regarding the Korean and Japanese delegations.

Pei Yuan's priority now is to ensure that things in Shandong proceed as planned and that nothing goes wrong.

After the matter of the De Fan is resolved, Pei Yuan will also present the small gift prepared for the Lu Fan.

By then, as long as these two powerful vassal states cannot restrain us, Shandong can be revitalized using the "single whip method".

Once things in Shandong are roughly settled, Pei Yuan can focus on consolidating the Shandong Wokou Defense Command under his control. Then, with the Shandong Wokou Defense Command's navy as the main force, he can advance into Liaodong first, developing Liaodong as his springboard, and then begin to manage Korea and Japan.

Liaodong, Korea, and Japan are located at high latitudes and have very cold winters, making them ideal places to dump goods.

Shandong's cotton cloth industry is underdeveloped, and there are not enough artisans to weave cotton cloth.

However, Shandong has excellent cotton. We can purchase cotton cloth from the south, then fill the area with Shandong cotton, and make cotton-padded jackets to sell to Liaodong, Korea, and Japan.

Although Liaodong is bitterly cold, it has mountain delicacies and medicinal herbs to harvest, as well as inexhaustible high-quality timber with current logging capabilities.

Timber is heavy and grows tall, requiring a large population to depend on this industry. This allows Pei Yuan to subtly streamline and organize this labor force.

As for how Korea and Japan can break this deadlock, that depends on the envoys from these two countries who have come to the capital.

Although North Korea is poor and its people are scarce, it has abundant metal deposits, while Japan has mountains of gold and silver waiting to be mined.

If they could obtain these resources, they could not only strengthen Pei Yuan's foundation, but also deliver a fatal blow to the Silver Group when they launched a counterattack.

Pei Yuan was lost in thought when Yun Weilin answered from below the hall, "That newly appointed Minister of Rites, Jia Yong, doesn't seem to have much interest in our Thousand-Household Office. When we do exchange official documents, it's just business as usual."

Pei Yuan simply said "Oh," not really caring. In the past, Pei Yuan might have tried to influence Jia Yong, after all, this Jia Langzhong possessed the qualities of a Grand Scholar. Perhaps he could even nurture him.

Unfortunately, after learning the whole story behind Wang Hua's treatment of Mao Cheng, Pei Yuan decided to temporarily back down.

The Ministry of Rites is not to be trifled with these days.

According to Pei Yuan's memory, Wang Hua should have been a nice guy.

After all, he was the top scholar in the imperial examination, entered the Hanlin Academy, and his subsequent promotions were smooth sailing. Such a favored child of heaven should not have any resentment.

Back when Pei Yuan was at the post station in Southern Zhili, he put Wang Chang in a difficult position. At that time, Wang Chang mentioned Wang Hua and talked about Wang Hua's tolerant and kind ideas.

As a result, this very gentleman, when it came to the court's recommendation process, decisively sent Mao Cheng to the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing.

All I can say is that he was indeed Wang Shouren's father, and he had some skills.

Pei Yuan didn't seem to care much about the Ministry of Rites' attitude, but Yun Weilin brought up an extra matter.

"By the way, Commander, if the Ministry of Rites stops communicating with us, then the things you've arranged will be difficult to handle."

Pei Yuan was taken aback upon hearing this. He had been preoccupied with the affairs of the entire nation these days and hadn't thought of anything he had arranged.

Fortunately, the Yun family father and son were both good at judging things. Yun Weilin took the initiative to mention, "Didn't the commander ask us to thoroughly investigate auspicious signs and good omens in various places, and then collect wheat and rice seeds?"

"To this day, our Qianhu Office has sent people to investigate the situation of Jiahe reported by more than ten counties."

Pei Yuan became interested and immediately asked, "How is it?"

Yun Weilin answered truthfully, "Since the commander gave his instructions, there have been a total of seventeen reports in the Ministry of Rites regarding auspicious omens such as ripe grain. After investigation, four of them were found to be forged. Of the remaining thirteen, five were for wheat and eight were for rice."

“Some have multiple ears on one stalk, while others have particularly plump and full grains. In places with many ears, we can harvest a shi (a unit of dry measure), while in two places with few ears, we only have one stalk. The garrison arranged for people to guard the grain under the pretext of presenting auspicious grains until it was ripe, and then they dug it up by the roots.”

"Some of these were compiled by Kong Xu and Zhang Song, while the most recent ones were found by me."

Pei Yuan was overjoyed upon hearing this and couldn't help but burst into laughter. He then stood up and stepped down from the platform, saying, "Take me to see those seeds."

Yun Weilin quickly led the way.

When Tantai Fangtu, Sikong Sui, and the others saw Pei Yuan leave, they wanted to follow him, but Pei Yuan quickly waved his hand and said, "No need to follow, just wait."

Only Yun Buxian, Xiao Tong, and Lu Yong served as his personal guards, closely following behind Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan followed Yun Weilin to a storeroom in the backyard, and then personally took the key and opened the storeroom.

Pei Yuan then saw thirteen urns and altars in front of him, of various sizes.

Pei Yuan opened the smallest of the rough earthenware jars and saw a withered rice stalk coiled inside, with seven ears of rice on top. Pei Yuan reached into the jar and took the auspicious rice stalk out.

Pei Yuan first confirmed that the Jiahe rice was not faked through grafting or similar methods before looking at the rice ears.

Pei Yuan reached out and rubbed a rice stalk. He saw that although there were some plump seeds on the stalk, most of them were shriveled, and some were even empty shells.

Upon closer inspection, those smaller rice stalks had hardly any grains at all.

But Pei Yuan was still very satisfied and exclaimed, "Good, very good!"

Then, Pei Yuan opened them one by one, examining the auspicious omens that the Embroidered Uniform Guards had painstakingly collected from various places.

Some have multiple spikes like the ones mentioned earlier, some have single spikes but the grains are particularly plump, and some rice varieties even have a faint purple hue.

Pei Yuan then lifted the large urn behind him.

Yun Weilin explained, "These are all unusual phenomena that have spread over a large area, and the crops are growing quite well, so we harvested a lot of grain. Considering the inconvenience of carrying them, the brothers below simply cut off the ears of grain and put them in urns."

Pei Yuan looked at the several full urns of grain and said happily to Yun Weilin, "Well done. These brothers deserve a reward. You can make a list and have them collect their money from the young mistress. I'll pay for it myself."

Seeing that Pei Yuan was happy, Yun Weilin didn't say anything to spoil the mood. Since the reward could be given by the commander, he quickly thanked Commander Pei on their behalf.

In this era, food is the primary productive force.

A country with abundant food and a large population is a great power and a strong country.

Pei Yuan is now able to free up his hands to send people to find potatoes, but although potatoes are high-yielding, they also have their drawbacks. To truly solve the food problem, we still need to start with rice paddies and wheat fields.

Pei Yuan didn't know much about seed technology, but this era had its own advantages.

In later generations, high-quality grain varieties may lead to many places growing grains from the same source.

But such conditions don't exist now.

After the harvest, ordinary people spontaneously select the plump grains of grain as seeds for the following year, resulting in a completely bizarre and disorderly process.

However, this also means that more seed types and high-quality variants may be preserved.

Pei Yuan did not have the technology to obtain high-quality rice seeds, but he believed that the miracles that nature would occasionally bestow upon the world might sometimes be no less impressive than the arduous efforts of humankind.

As long as the base number is large enough and the variety is sufficient, there are enough possibilities for the miracle that Pei Yuan desires to occur.

Pei Yuan's plan was to use the pretext of finding auspicious grains to present to the court to search for all kinds of unique seeds. Then, from those seeds, he would select the best ones, and through continuous planting and screening, find out which ones were high-yielding, which ones were resistant to diseases and pests, and which ones were resistant to lodging.

Pei Yuan believed that with the vast territory of the Ming Dynasty and the diverse varieties of seeds preserved in various regions, as long as he searched patiently and persisted in opening blind boxes, he was sure to reap great rewards.

Pei Yuan closed the lid of the urn and instructed Yun Weilin again, "Have someone send these seeds to Yanggu. We have some land there, and we'll find some people to plant them carefully. When there's a harvest next year, I, the commander, will personally go and see it."

"By the way, we could try crossbreeding and see if there are any surprises."

At this point, Pei Yuan had another idea, "Also, oranges grown south of the Huai River are sweet oranges, but those grown north of the Huai River are bitter oranges. Why don't we allocate some manpower separately to collect seeds from various places and try planting them in other areas? Perhaps we can get some unexpected results."

Listening to Pei Yuan's words, Yun Weilin tentatively asked, "Does the commander intend to raise an auspicious omen that surpasses everyone else to congratulate the emperor?"

Pei Yuan was taken aback for a moment, then laughed and said, "What do you know? Let's go."

After Yun Weilin bowed and left the storeroom, Pei Yuancai reluctantly turned back to look at the grains of grain one last time.

He silently thought to himself, "If I am virtuous, this is my destiny."

(End of this chapter)