Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 376 Xu Jie gave up the annexation, and the scholars took the initiative to ask to go to Japan!
"For the sake of a few small favors, they betrayed the laws of their ancestors. These officials who came from humble backgrounds are really presumptuous!"

"I think the court should restrict these scholars of humble origins from becoming noble officials, so as to avoid corrupting the morale of the court!"

Liu Long, the Left Vice Minister of Rites whose ancestors had been officials for three generations, did not understand the officials from poor families in the Ministry of Rites who called for reform, and was even somewhat dissatisfied with their performance at this time.

Zhai Luan, who was born in the Jinyiwei, did not say much.

Shangshu Wu Yipeng himself advised Liu Long: "What's the point of saying these things? Besides, this can't be considered a small favor. This is the great benevolence and virtue of the emperor. But this kind of great benevolence and virtue can only be obtained by seizing the benefits of the big families. I am afraid it will not last long."

Liu Long said nothing more.

However, the court had added a large amount of foreign money, which made more people change their mindsets and support the court's reforms and benevolent policies to benefit the people. This really made the gentry and wealthy families feel uneasy.

They really didn't want to see the emperor using the huge sum of money to implement benevolent policies.

However, the literati openly advocated that the emperor should exercise benevolent rule.

But when the emperor really started to implement benevolent policies, they became extremely depressed.

Hangzhou, Zhejiang.

After learning that the imperial court had gained a large fortune from Japan, Xu Shouyu paced around on the carpet with his hands on his hips. He was so annoyed that he wished he could cut off Emperor Zhu Houcong's financial resources immediately so that he could not continue with his reforms.

Because he was really worried that one day in the future, after this benevolent policy continued to be implemented, fewer and fewer people would sell their land and houses, and fewer and fewer people would sell their children.

In this case.

How could a wealthy man like him acquire land and amass new slaves?
Therefore, Xu Shouyu was really afraid that such a scene would occur after the implementation of "Jiajing's benevolent policy".

Because he had received the news that his seventh son and ninth daughter had been born.

He couldn't possibly allow his seven sons and nine daughters to grow up with fewer maids and servants serving them than their older brothers and sisters.

More importantly, it was impossible for him to wait until his youngest son came of age and then have no land to share with him, so that his youngest son could not pay the rent and could not concentrate on his studies.

The more Xu Shouyu thought about it, the more anxious he became.

When he left home and came to the market, he saw that the number of poor people who were selling their heads with signs or begging for money in the market had indeed decreased significantly compared to the Zhengde period. He suddenly began to feel that the scene of refugees crowded everywhere and selling their heads with signs everywhere was actually quite good.

Now, most of these people seemed to be living a prosperous and peaceful life, which made him, a wealthy businessman from a family of officials, feel very uncomfortable and uneasy.

He himself hadn't expected that he would feel this way.

He felt that he should be happy about the increasing prosperity of the world.

But as long as he thought about the fact that the imperial court achieved national prosperity at the expense of such wealthy gentry as them, he felt as uncomfortable as if he saw someone else using his meat to cook a delicious dish.

Therefore, Xu Shouyu really couldn't be happy and his mood was very complicated.

Xu Jie, who went to Liangzhe and arrived in Hangzhou on his way to Japan, had mixed feelings.

He is a supporter of Wang Yangming's philosophy of mind.

In Xu Jie's view, the School of Mind made him realize that what he advocated was conscience, and he did not need to seek it from external things. He only needed to integrate knowledge and action and promote his conscience, that is, the values ​​in his heart, to all aspects of the world.

But when he saw that the court's wealth had greatly increased and it began to really strengthen local management, add inspection offices and patrol stations, and invest 3 million silver dollars in a special fund to strengthen the financial resources of the southeast to prepare for the Japanese invasion, what it brought was a sharp decrease in the number of people selling themselves into slavery in the southeast, a decrease in the number of poor households selling their fields and land, and it became increasingly difficult for bullies such as thugs to survive in the market by relying on the gentry. He could not help but begin to admit that it was not a bad thing for the court to seize the sea power and actively expand resources from abroad.

But at the same time, he also clearly felt through various channels that his relatives and friends, who also belonged to the gentry class, were not happy about the decrease in the number of poor refugees who sold their children and land. Instead, they were all in a very bad mood.

Of course he knew that the reason was the increased difficulty of mergers, and he also knew that his Xu family would be greatly affected by this.

He had just bought a large house in the capital, and his family had more children, so he needed to acquire more land to increase his income from cotton cultivation.

but now……

The living environment of the common people in the south of the Yangtze River has been greatly improved. The low-interest loans from the two royal uncles have allowed many common people in the south of the Yangtze River to no longer worry about being forced to mortgage their land because they cannot repay the usurious loans.

This naturally made it much more difficult for the Xu family to expand the cotton planting area.

So, Xu Jie is in a very complicated mood now.

But he knew that now he could only support the emperor and even do his best to increase the national treasury revenue for the emperor and the country!
After all, he was still a minister of the Ming Dynasty. After all, the teachings of the sages did not support sacrificing public interests for personal gain.

Xu Jie's only solution is to transform his Xu family!
This time, he brought with him the tenant servant who was best at cotton planting and the old servant who was best at business. He also took the farmland contract of 10,000 acres of fertile land in Songjiang as collateral, and prepared to borrow money from the Zhang family, his in-laws. Then, under the name of developing Risheng, a district directly under the control of the Ming Dynasty, he would expand his Xu family's cotton industry in Japan, and develop his Xu family's business in Risheng as well.

In Xu Jie's opinion, since fewer and fewer people in Jiangnan were selling fields, land, and children, the cost of owning slaves for wealthy families like him had increased greatly. This should not be the case in Japan. If he couldn't buy Han people as servants cheaply, he could buy Japanese people as servants cheaply.

No matter what, he had to find a way to make his Xu family more prosperous.

Therefore, Xu Jie asked someone to contact Zhang Heling, Marquis of Shouning, who was in Zhejiang, in advance and asked him to meet in Hangzhou.

However, just as Xu Jie arrived in Hangzhou, Xu Shouyu asked for an audience with Xu Jie on the grounds that Xu Jie and his brother were from the same hometown as him.

Xu Jie was thinking about whether he could return to the court early in the future, and he would need his friends who were censors in the court to mention it to the emperor, so he met Xu Shouyu.

"What do you want to see me for?"

Xu Jie asked about Xu Shouyu after meeting him.

Xu Shouyu said: "Nothing else, I just want you to take me to Japan."

"Going to Japan?"

Xu Jie was a little surprised and frowned.

Xu Shouyu smiled and said, "That's right!"

Xu Jie asked again: "Why do you want to go?"

"Because I want to become an official!"

Xu Shouyu replied.

After hearing this, Xu Jie said, "Go on."

"Yes!"

"Now that the imperial court has stopped collecting donations, I have no other choice but to ask you to take me to Japan so that you can recommend me for an official post. At home, I can't pass the examinations as well as the young scholars there, and I'm afraid they won't welcome someone like me to be an official."

Xu Shouyu replied.

After hearing this, Xu Jie sneered: "You should understand that going to the East means crossing the sea, and no one knows whether you will encounter any danger."

"I know, but I'm too old to care."

Xu Shouyu knelt down in front of Xu Jie and said, "Please help me! As long as you help me, I am willing to take all the cash to Japan to help you prosper!"

Xu Jie is now short of money to develop Sunrise, otherwise he would not be planning to borrow money from his in-laws, the Zhang family.

So, Xu Jie agreed to Xu Shouyu.

Just like he had promised other scholars who came to him to join him and go to the East with him.

However, when Xu Jie took Xu Shouyu and other scholars who had come to him to meet Zhang Heling, they learned that a fire had broken out in the villa where Zhang Heling was temporarily staying.

After Xu Jie arrived, he saw with his own eyes that Zhang Heling, who was running away, was shot through the heart by a group of people who came out of nowhere.

"Someone killed the uncle!"

Xu Shouyu therefore pretended to be surprised and told Xu Jie about it, and the other scholars around Xu Jie were also shocked.

Only then did Xu Jie reply with a heavy expression: "That's not the emperor's uncle, it's your majesty's imperial guards!"

"Some of you are pretending to come to me!"

Xu Jie then turned around and looked at Xu Shouyu and others and said something.

(End of this chapter)