My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 108: "Please Open a Trade Memorial between Deng and Lai"! (Updated!)

That night, Su Ze stuffed the "Petition to Open Trade between Deng and Lai" into the [Portable Ming Dynasty Court].

——[Simulation Start]——

A day later, the "Petition to Open Trade between Deng and Lai" was sent to the cabinet. The cabinet ministers did not dare to make a decision, so they sent it to the palace to request the emperor's judgment.

Two days later, the "Petition to Open Trade between Deng and Lai" was returned by the emperor.

Gao Gong summoned you because you wrote a letter to reprimand him without authorization, and your relationship with Gao Ge Lao has declined.

——[Simulation End]——

return?
Wow, this time it wasn’t even kept, it was directly returned.

Is returning the memorial also considered as the emperor's protection of himself?
The returned memorials do not need to be sent to the Six Departments Censorate, otherwise the censors will not be able to see the memorials.

And Gao Gong scolded him, which was also true. A few days ago, Lord Gao gave him a lecture, and then he launched a surprise attack, which was indeed not a good thing.

Su Ze wondered whether he should go and talk to Gao Gong first.
[Do you want to spend 300 prestige points to ensure that the "Petition to Open Denglai Trade" is executed?]

300 points of prestige!
This is the most prestige Su Ze has ever needed!
The last time I asked to publish the Yuefu New Newspaper, I only spent 100 points of prestige.

Su Ze suddenly remembered that the negotiation of trade with Japan had actually happened during the Wanli period in history.

At that time, it was proposed to resume trade in Ningbo. However, his good brother Shen Yikuan was staying in his hometown due to illness because of the fierce party struggles in the Wanli court, and refused to go to the capital to serve as the chief minister.

Upon hearing that the imperial court was going to reopen the tribute market in Ningbo, Shen Yikuan immediately went to Beijing and wrote a letter to oppose the resumption of trade with Japan.

This shows how great the resistance was to implementing the petition this time.

But isn’t the accumulated prestige points for use now?

Su Ze quickly clicked to use it, and 300 prestige points were deducted instantly.

[300 points of prestige have been deducted, and the remaining prestige is 36 points.]

Wow, the prestige value has reached double digits again.

But isn’t the purpose of saving prestige to be used?
Su Ze called Xu Wei again and asked him to go to the Bashu Guild Hall to hand the memorial to Tu Zemin for his signature, and prepare to submit the memorial early tomorrow morning!
Su Ze thought about it again and decided to go to Gao Gong's house to inform Gao Gong first. He took a copy of the memorial and went to Gao Gong's house overnight.

It wasn't until midnight that Su Ze left Gao Gong's house, but he was in high spirits. He had come to the right place this time!
October 22nd.

Guo Zhun, the Secretary of the Central Secretariat, arrived early at the two rooms next to the cabinet.

As the son of a former cabinet minister, Guo Zhun did not dare to slack off and came to the second room early every day.

This is also the reason why Gao Gong has always valued him.

The two-room attendants assist the elder in handling official business. Although their positions are low, they are very important.

The servants in the same room also greeted Guo Zhun. Guo Zhun greeted them one by one and returned to his seat.

As the secretary of the prime minister, Guo Zhun had a lot of work to do.

He needed to assist Gao Gong in handling official business, and sometimes he had to supervise the matters assigned by Gao Gong, and travel between the six ministries and nine government offices to convey Gao Gong's orders.

This was a very meticulous job, and Guo Zhun had always done a good job. Gao Gong even wrote a letter to his father Guo Pu, praising his ability.

After finally finishing the pile of official business from yesterday, Guo Zhun came to the cabinet again, waiting to welcome Gao Gong to the yamen.

Sure enough, Gao Gong arrived at the cabinet a quarter of an hour before going to the yamen.

Guo Zhun was Gao Gong's close associate, and he saw that Gao Gong looked a little strange.

I can’t say I’m happy, but I can’t say I’m angry either, but there’s definitely something on my mind.

Guo Zhun was a little surprised. As a cabinet minister, Gao Gong had a very strong psychological quality. Even when news of the Datong Rebellion came a few days ago, Gao Gong did not panic.

Later, news came that Qi Jiguang had suppressed the rebellion in one day, and Gao Gong just smiled slightly.

"Has Lord Zhao arrived?"

Guo Zhun quickly said:

"Lord Gao, Lord Zhao always comes to the cabinet late every day."

Gao Gong nodded slightly, and then he looked at the vacant position of Prime Minister of the Cabinet. Li Chunfang had asked for leave again.

Gao Gong came early, Zhang Juzheng came on time, and only Zhao Zhenji was late every day.

At this time, Guo Zhun was a little envious of Pan Quan, the secretary of the Central Secretariat beside Zhao Zhenji. Zhao Zhenji was not as workaholic as Gao Gong, and Pan Quan's job was much easier than his own.

"When will the memorial from the Ministry of Public Administration arrive?"

"It usually takes after 9:00 PM and before 5:00 PM to be sent to the Cabinet."

Gao Gong nodded and said, "After the memorial from the Ministry of Public Administration is delivered, go find Su Ze's memorial and show it to me first."

It turned out to be Su Ze.

Guo Zhun quickly agreed. Since it was about Su Ze, it was no wonder that Lord Gao was so uneasy.

After a while, Zhang Juzheng arrived on time.

Half a minute later, Zhao Zhenji finally arrived.

This time Gao Gong got down from his seat, came to Zhao Zhenji and said:

"Lord Zhao, I have completed the task you asked me to do."

Zhao Zhenji's eyes lit up, and he immediately understood what Gao Gong was talking about, that is, he asked him to be a matchmaker for his niece's granddaughter.

Originally, Zhao Zhenji was ready to give up. His niece's granddaughter came from a prominent family, was virtuous, and beautiful. Matchmakers came to his house in droves.

Unexpectedly, Su Ze agreed. Thinking of this, Zhao Zhenji's face was full of smiles. He quickly said:

"Thank you, Lord Gao! When the wedding banquet comes, please be kind enough to host the banquet!"

Zhao Zhenji was thinking about writing a letter to his brother and quickly finalizing the matter. Gao Gong then said:

"Su Zilin is going to submit another petition today. Elder Zhao, please discuss it carefully."

Speaking of this, Gao Gong had an even greater headache.

Last night, Su Ze asked for a meeting and presented him with a memorial requesting the opening of trade between Deng and Lai, and also laid out his blueprint in detail.

Gao Gong's reaction was actually the same as Tu Zemin's. He was completely shocked by this grand blueprint.

From the opening of the port during the Longqing reign to Altan Khan's tribute, Gao Gong had actually been trying to solve the financial problems of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Gao Gong was better at administration but not as good as Zhang Juzheng in finance, so his fiscal policy was just to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, and it was a haphazard approach without a systematic approach.

When he saw Su Ze's plan, he really thought it was feasible!

And once it is implemented, it will indeed be as Su Ze said, able to fill the national treasury and reduce the actual taxes of the people!

This was an unparalleled attraction for Gao Gong, who had always wanted to "launch the New Deal of Longqing" and get rid of the malpractices of the previous dynasty!

But how to convince the emperor and colleagues?
Gao Gong pinched his temples. This guy Su Ze was really restless and always found something to do!
But at least this time he came to talk to me first.

So last night Gao Gong put forward the conditions on the spot and asked Su Ze to respond to Zhao Zhenji's proposal of marriage.

In the end, Su Ze agreed.

Gao Gong was actually unwilling to let Su Ze marry into the Zhao family.

Gao Gong felt a little unhappy, as if someone had taken away his own valuable cabbage. However, Zhao Zhenji's younger brother did not take the palace examination because his elder brother passed the examination, which was indeed a behavior that was praised by the world.

Moreover, the Zhao family of Neijiang is indeed a famous and prominent family. Their family produced a prime minister in the Song Dynasty. Zhao Zhenji's father was also a Hanlin. There were also many Jinshi in the family. The family tradition and style are indeed quite good.

The daughter of the Zhao family was indeed a good match, and Gao Gong felt relieved when he thought so, since he didn't have a daughter anyway.

Moreover, Su Ze's marriage to the Zhao family could indeed ease the relationship between him and Zhao Zhenji, so at this time, Gao Gong mentioned Su Ze's memorial.

Zhao Zhenji naturally agreed without hesitation.

Zhang Juzheng raised his eyes slightly. As a cabinet minister, he naturally had his own channels of information.

Of course he understood what Gao Gong and Zhao Zhenji were talking about.

Is this a merger between Gao and Zhao?
Zhang Juzheng shook his head in his heart. Gao Gong and Zhao Zhenji had huge differences both politically and academically. It could only be said that the two had reached a balance with Su Ze, but it did not mean that they would form an alliance.

Gao Gong mentioned Su Zilin's memorial. Is Su Ze going to submit another memorial?
How many days has it been quiet?

Moreover, Su Ze had already submitted a memorial this month to depose the vassal king, King Dai.

Su Yishu became Su Ershu?

Gao Gong even used Su Ze's marriage as a political exchange and specifically mentioned Su Ze's memorial to Zhao Zhenji, seeking Zhao Zhenji's support.

Then this memorial must be very important.

But why didn’t Gao Gong tell me about it?

Zhang Juzheng became even more curious.

At the time of Si, the Ministry of Public Administration delivered the memorials from the ministers, and the cabinet ministers began to work.

Guo Zhun quickly picked out Su Ze's memorial from a pile of memorials and delivered it to Gao Gong's desk.

Gao Gong took a quick look at it, picked up the paper, picked up the pen and wrote down his own draft opinion.

Naturally, all of this was seen by Zhang Juzheng.

This shows that Su Ze had already discussed the matter with Gao Gong before submitting the memorial, which is why Gao Gong was able to draft it so quickly.

What is the content?
Zhang Juzheng was itching to do something, like an ant crawling, but he couldn't just snatch the memorial away.

Immediately afterwards, Gao Gong asked the Secretary of the Central Secretariat Guo Zhun to hand Su Ze's memorial to Zhao Zhenji.

Zhang Juzheng observed Zhao Zhenji again, and this time Zhao Zhenji's reaction was shock!

Shock?

Zhao Zhenji slowly read the memorial, and after a long time, he finally picked up the pen and wrote two words.

Zhang Juzheng secretly calculated that it should be the word "seconding the motion".

In other words, Zhao Zhenji himself did not really support this memorial, but because of Gao Gong's recent work, Zhao Zhenji had no choice but to agree with Su Ze's memorial out of courtesy.

Zhang Juzheng couldn't even bear to read the memorial in his hand. What did Su Ze write?
After Zhao Zhenji finally finished drafting the memorial, Zhang Juzheng could finally order the secretary beside him to bring Su Ze's memorial to his desk.

"Please open a memorial to the Denglai trade"!!

Zhang Juzheng's pupils widened, and he finally understood Zhao Zhenji's shock!

The Denglai trade means trade with Japan. For the ministers who had just experienced the anti-Japanese war, this memorial was indeed shocking.

Zhao Zhenji once served as an official in Nanjing and had witnessed with his own eyes the devastation suffered by Japanese pirates in the southeast. Naturally, he was reluctant to second the motion.

But when Zhang Juzheng finished reading Su Ze's memorial, he could not suppress his inner excitement.

Of course, Su Ze did not just talk about trade in his memorial.

Generally speaking, this memorial is divided into three parts: "imposing additional commercial taxes", "requesting the minting of silver coins" and "monopoly of tribute"!
Imposing commercial taxes means abolishing the ship-towing system, imposing a goods tax, and levying taxes based on the size of the ship, changing the tax to a percentage of the total price of the goods.

Zhang Juzheng naturally supported this.

As a senior official in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, Zhang Juzheng naturally knew about the problem of ship guides.

The profits from the ship's guides were all earned by the clerks and big sea merchants. The court did not collect much, but still had to bear the stigma.

Requesting the minting of silver dollars means requesting the court to set up a mint in the port of Denglai to specifically mint silver dollars.

Merchants traveling back and forth had to use silver dollars for transactions. If a merchant carried silver but no silver dollars, he had to first go to the mint to mint silver coins, exchange them for silver dollars, and then conduct transactions.

Of course, the Mint does not mint coins for free. It also has to charge a fire consumption fee, which is the loss of silver coins.

Wonderful!

Zhang Juzheng had long wanted to improve the currency system, but the court had too few precious metals.

Su Ze's method can be said to be quite clever!

Silver from foreign merchant ships was used to mint coins, and Ming merchants who exported goods received silver dollars. These silver dollars would flow into the market, effectively alleviating the problem of currency dissemination. This fire consumption also increased the income of the mint, which could be said to be killing two birds with one stone.

But the last one.

Zhang Juzheng frowned.

This is Su Ze’s third proposal to sell tribute items exclusively.

What Su Ze talked about was the issue of tribute from various places.

In addition to regular taxes, the Ming Dynasty also had many special taxes, namely tributes.

For example, the five prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou were responsible for the rice used by the royal family, which was called "white grain", and they had to pay tribute of 200,000 shi every year.

Of course, the emperor and his concubines could not eat so much, as this included the expenses of the entire palace. The emperor would also use this tribute rice to reward his ministers.

If tribute rice was indeed consumed, then many other tribute items were simply offered for the sake of tribute.

For example, the purple rice from Yunnan was required as tribute by Zhu Di, but he was the only emperor in history who was accustomed to eating it. Every year, it was sent to the capital but would rot in the treasury.

There is also Wuyishan tribute tea, 500 kilograms of tribute tea a year, but the emperors of the Ming Dynasty preferred Huzhou's Yangxian tea, and Jiajing preferred Lu'an bud tea. The emperors never drank Wuyishan tribute tea.

There are also Huzhou tribute silk and so on, which have caused great waste.

Therefore, Su Ze suggested that in the future, the tributes that the royal family would definitely not use should be sent to Denglai via the Grand Canal and exchanged for silver dollars to be kept in the emperor's treasury.

This proposal?

This proposal is not completely innovative. Cai Jing of the Song Dynasty used this method to sell goods in the inventory of the royal government and help Song Huizong enrich the national treasury.

Zhang Juzheng sighed slightly. Su Ze was still a little naive. He didn't know that although the emperor didn't use these tributes, many eunuchs in the palace depended on them for their livelihood.

A copy must be given to the Imperial Household Department.

Zhang Juzheng picked up the notice and proposed to set up a Maritime Customs Office in Denglai, and asked the palace to send eunuchs to be responsible for the purchase and sale of these excess tributes.

Zhang Juzheng thought about it again and sent the Secretary of the Central Secretariat to inform Feng Bao about this matter in order to reduce the resistance within the Imperial Household Department.

After also writing down his approval, Zhang Juzheng finally looked at the memorial.

The cabinet has done everything it can, but the key to the problem still lies with the emperor.

No matter how united the cabinet is, or how much they agree with Su Ze's plan, the decision-making power still lies in the hands of the emperor.

Will the emperor agree to this memorial?

(End of this chapter)