Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 299: Use imperial merchants to gain sea profits and use meritorious officials to command warships!
"The Son of Heaven is a benevolent and holy ruler."

"Otherwise, there wouldn't be such drastic measures to redress the grievances of the common people and to eliminate the traitors with an iron fist!"

"I am fortunate to be able to enjoy the benevolence of the Holy Emperor in my later years and see the villagers return home. When I go to the underworld to see the late emperor in the future, I will not feel ashamed!"

Shunde County, Guangzhou.

After filling the corresponding official vacancies in Guangdong and Guangxi, Yang Yiqing came to Shunde to pay a visit to Liang Chu.

Liang Chu took Yang Yiqing to the beach to watch the sea and chat while the weather was fine.

at that time.

There were already a large number of warships at sea and naval recruits being trained in shallow waters.

In addition, there are a large number of Tanka fishing boats returning from various islands.

While looking at the sea surface that looked like it was burning in the golden sunlight and listening to the shouts one after another, Liang Chu smiled and told Yang Yiqing about his thoughts during this period.

Yang Yiqing knew that these killed officials from Guangdong and Guangxi had caused Liang Chu a lot of trouble in recent days.

All this was caused by Liang Chu's low-interest loans for the emperor, which offended the local bureaucrats and gentry.

Yang Yiqing smiled slightly after Liang Chu said that, and said, "This time, it is also fortunate that you made a secret report on the unjustly killed civilians, so that His Majesty can know the truth. It is a blessing for Guangdong and the Ming Dynasty that the people of Guangdong have such an upright official like you!"

"I am only being loyal, not being virtuous."

Liang Chu smiled and said, then continued to look at the warships and the returning people on the sea, and asked Yang Yiqing: "Ying Ning came to see me, I think he didn't just want to chat with me, an old guy, right?"

"Nothing can be hidden from you, sir."

Yang Yiqing smiled and pointed to the warships towering above the waves, saying, "You have seen that your majesty's newly built navy has gradually taken shape and is still growing rapidly! This means that in the future, the benefits of this vast sea will be decided by your majesty and the court! So, I think you should be able to guess what your majesty will do next."

"And what I want to ask you is, as a veteran of four dynasties and a great official in the southeast, what do you think about whether the world should ban the sea or open it?"

talking.

Yang Yiqing bowed to Liang Chu and said, "Please give me some advice, sir!"

Liang Chu smiled slightly, stroked his beard and gently shook the square flat scarf on his head, and asked Yang Yiqing: "I know that your Majesty has the ambition to enrich the people of the world and expand the country's territory! Therefore, your Majesty must want to open up the sea so that the landless people along the coast can live by the sea, and also increase the tax on the court's maritime customs."

"But!"

"Ying Ning, you must know that the powerful families in the southeast don't want the court to open the sea! And it's not just the powerful families in the southeast who don't want the court to open the sea. Ordinary farmers are also afraid that after the country's borders are opened, the barbarians will disturb their peace."

"So, if Your Majesty really wants to open up the sea, even if the landless vagrants along the coast are willing, I'm afraid they won't support it."

Liang Chu replied.

Yang Yiqing nodded: "Mingsong is right."

then.

Yang Yiqing then said, "However, what you don't know is that although His Majesty wants to open the sea, he actually wants to ban the sea first and then open it."

When Yang Yiqing said this, he smiled and looked at Liang Chu.

Liang Chu was stunned for a moment.

After a long time.

Liang Chucai looked at the increasing number of warships and returning boatmen on the sea and said, "Your Majesty is truly a wise and enlightened ruler!"

"This is undoubtedly the best strategy!"

"In the name of abiding by our ancestors' rules, we will strengthen the maritime ban and severely crack down on all the smuggling clans and wealthy people, forcing them to persuade the villagers and the conservative ministers in the court to open the sea!"

"This will be much less troublesome than the imperial court forcibly implementing the policy of opening the sea."

Liang Chu looked at the sea again with expectation, and said, "But there are indeed many people in this village who rely on smuggling merchants for their livelihood. I wonder what Your Majesty plans to do?"

"If the sea ban is really tightened, it won't just hurt the big clans and the wealthy."

After that.

Liang Chu looked at Yang Yiqing.

Yang Yiqing put his hands behind his back and smiled faintly: "Your Majesty also expected this, so before I left Beijing, he gave me an oral order to ask you whether your family is willing to take on the responsibility of the imperial merchant in Guangdong and Guangxi."

"After the maritime ban is strengthened, only imperial merchants can go out to sea."

"But the imperial merchants must give the imperial family a share of the profits and be controlled by the imperial family. They must also truthfully report their profits and tax payments to the imperial family and assume the corresponding public responsibility of benefiting the country and the people."

"For example, in order to prevent the coastal residents who make a living by transporting goods from having no food or clothing after the maritime ban is strengthened, we should rather spend more money to hire them instead of the Japanese Kunlun slaves!"

After Yang Yiqing explained this, Liang Chu's heart was burning with anger.

He knew what it would mean to his Liang family if he agreed.

Therefore, Liang Chu hurriedly said solemnly: "Since you are an imperial merchant, you should have such awareness and integrity! Otherwise, you should be deposed from the title of imperial merchant and punished for disloyalty!"

After Liang Chu finished speaking, he bowed to Yang Yiqing and said, "Please tell Your Majesty that the Liang family, as a family of common people, will not suffer from food and clothing because of the strengthening of the maritime ban. We would rather sell our land and houses and ask for Your Majesty's approval to take on the responsibility of dredging the internal and external financial resources!"

"Your Majesty will be very pleased to hear what Lord Ming said."

Yang Yiqing replied.

Liang Chu still smiled with shame and said: "Your Majesty's grace is as great as the sky. Even if I sacrifice my family for the country, I can't guarantee your grace! The only way to repay you is to repay you from generation to generation and protect the Ming Dynasty forever."

then.

Liang Chu asked Yang Yiqing curiously, "I remember Ying Ning also advocated a peaceful government. Why does he support Your Majesty's pursuit of profit at sea?"

"As you said, Your Majesty has lofty ambitions, which are not comparable to ordinary rulers who only care about the status quo."

"Your Majesty, in this peaceful world, you are doing these troublesome things for the future of the Han family and for the continuation of the ancestral temple. Therefore, I am willing to accompany Your Majesty to give it a try!"

After Yang Yiqing answered with a smile, he looked intently at the sea.

At sea, red light filled the sky, shining straight to the east.

…………

"Wow, it's only been a year and there are so many warships!"

"The key is that they are still recruiting more soldiers. Both military households and boat households are being recruited. Military households are sent to the newly established Jinghai Camp, and boat households are sent to the Haibeidi Camp."

"What I'm thinking is, the imperial court has built a navy on such a large scale, and even recruited the boatmen who had fled to become pirates. Could it be that they are doing this to open up the sea?"

After Liang Chu saw Yang Yiqing off and took him home, his relative-in-law Chen Chong, the former Minister of the Ministry of Rites, came to see him.

"Have you seen those navy warships?"

As soon as Chen Chong arrived, he started talking about Liang Chu's navy.

Liang Chu nodded: "I saw it."

Chen Chong came specifically to ask Liang Chu.

After all, he already knew that Yang Yiqing had been to Liang Chu.

Therefore, he knew that Yang Yiqing would definitely reveal some key information to Liang Chu.

Liang Chu smiled and said to his relative: "Don't worry, Your Majesty is strengthening the navy, not to open the sea, but to ban the sea!"

"Really?"

“Is it still cooked?”

Liang Chu started laughing as he spoke.

Chen Chong followed suit and laughed: "That's good! The ban on the sea means that there is no intention to continue to change the ancestral system. There is no intention to change it."

"Yes!"

Liang Chu followed up with an echo.

……

……

"May I ask the Captain, the higher-ups are asking so many people to learn the art of naval warfare. Are they planning to open up the sea?"

Jiang Chang, the newly selected general of Dapeng Station under Lu Tan, asked the same question when he led Lin Ji and other new soldiers to the military camp where Lu Tan was.

After hearing this, Lu Tong asked Jiang Chang: "Do you want to allow the sea to be opened or not?"

"Of course not!"

"When the sea is opened, more Haiyi will come, and they are not good people!"

"When the time comes, the higher-ups will ask us to pay more silver for the grains of military farms so that they can do more business with the Haiyi."

Jiang Chang replied without hesitation.

Lu Tong nodded: "Don't worry, the higher-ups won't open the sea. Strengthening the navy is to strengthen the sea ban and crack down on smuggling!"

"That's great! We can fight against smuggling and make a fortune!"

Jiang Chang started to laugh.

Lu Tong smiled slightly. He knew that the military households would definitely be willing to strengthen the maritime ban.

So does he himself.

In his view, strengthening the maritime ban could indeed prevent more pirates from gaining support from inland gentry, and the inland gentry would also lose the pirates as external aid, thus avoiding further damage to the court's coastal defense.

Saying.

At this moment, it is indeed the majority opinion to advocate strengthening the maritime ban.

Regardless of whether this position is based on public or private.

Otherwise, in history, there would not have been a situation in the middle of the Jiajing period when Zhu Wan led Lu Tong and other government troops to vigorously crack down on smuggling.

The idea of ​​opening the sea gradually became mainstream, but it was not until Zhu Wan and others cracked down on smuggling too harshly and banned the sea too seriously, and after the Japanese invasion, that more and more bureaucrats began to advocate opening the sea, and it finally became the mainstream idea in the late Jiajing period and early Longqing period.

Therefore, even if Zhu Houcong wanted to open the sea, he could only strengthen the navy under the pretext of strengthening the sea ban.

But he believed that once he appointed someone like Zhu Wan, who was serious about banning the sea, some people would cry out in pain and call for the opening of the sea.

"quick!"

"quick!"

"quick!"

"Damn it, haven't you eaten yet?!"

"Take advantage of the wind direction before it changes and bite it!"

While more and more new sailors were receiving sea training on warships on the vast ocean, Zhu Houcong also received the latest information about the supervision of warship construction from Zhang Cong.

"His Majesty!"

"According to Zhang Cong's report, the shipyards have already reduced the construction requirements to 10 large four-masted sailing ships weighing more than 5,000 tons. After a trial voyage in the East China Sea, it was found that these warships are indeed more resistant to strong winds than the original warships modeled after the Portuguese ships."

At this time, Zhu Houcong was also listening to Wang Qiong's report on the manufacture of warships.

"it is good!"

Zhu Houcong was very happy after hearing this and said:

"I want to give these warships imperial titles!"

"You should discuss it first in the Ministry of War, and then report the proposed names of the warships to me. They should be named after the meritorious officials of the dynasty. The largest warship should naturally be the one with the most outstanding merits. For example, the King of Zhongshan should get the largest warship to inspire the soldiers on that ship and make immortal contributions to the country!"

(End of this chapter)