The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Time finally entered December of the forty-first year of Jiajing, and Wei Guangde began to feel a little drifting again.

Before that, Wei Guangde spent his time not only going to the Yamen to do errands, but also leaving the Yamen to go home. However, all this gradually relaxed after Wei's mother rushed to Beijing before the canal was frozen.

Naturally, Wei's mother came to Beijing to take care of the pregnant Xu Jianglan, which made Wei Guangde relieved. He could go back to his old life, and after leaving office, he could drink wine and listen to music with his colleagues in peace.

Although experienced midwives can be hired in the capital to serve them, as the masters, neither Wei Guangde nor Xu Jianglan are familiar with these. They often have to be in a hurry and give random orders. With Wei's mother in the capital, everyone feels much more at ease.

Participating in these activities can not only enhance the relationship between Wei Guangde and his colleagues, but also hear a lot of news from the DPRK and China. After drinking a few glasses of wine during the banquet, many people will no longer keep their mouths closed. No matter what news they hear in the yamen, They all jumped out suddenly.

Although Prince Yu's Mansion has placed its own people in the cabinet, six ministries, and even the General Affairs Department to detect information in the court, there will still be a lot of information that is missed. Of course, most of it is useless information, at least Wei Guangde He felt that they were of little value to him, or to Prince Yu's Mansion, but there were some that were valuable, but on the surface they had little connection with Prince Yu's Mansion, so they were omitted.

For example, Wei Guangde heard the news from the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Shandong Chief Envoy complained to the court many times that due to the famine in Liaodong the year before last, sea transportation was temporarily allowed, allowing Liao ships to go to Shandong to buy grain to relieve the famine.

Later, Liaodong merchants took advantage of this and privately carried goods to and from Shandong. As a result, the maritime ban was gradually relaxed, and they hoped that the imperial court would reconsider the maritime transportation policy.

The reopening of maritime transportation to Liaoning was actually a project started by Jia Yingchun, a disciple of Prince Yu's Palace when he was the Minister of Household Affairs. This move was supported by Gao Gong, Wei Guangde and other people in Prince Yu's Palace, hoping to prove the reliability of shipping and get rid of the The lack of navigation capacity of the Grand Canal restricted north-south traffic.

Moreover, now under the influence of Wei Guangde, King Yu has also developed a strong interest in maritime trade. However, due to his unfamiliarity with the ocean, he still has deep concerns about the safety of maritime transportation.

Especially according to what Wei Guangde said, the opening of sea trade will not only attract foreigners to sail ships to the Ming Dynasty for trade, but also people from the Ming Dynasty will go to sea to do business. After all, profits will come out from the turnover of goods, and the profits will not be enough. Small.

Emperor Jiajing often worried about money, and although King Yu had not succeeded to the throne, he had already felt the financial constraints on the court.

Moreover, if Shandong's lobbying in North Korea and China really makes progress, Wei Guangde himself will also suffer actual losses.

Wei Guangde had been asking Zhang Ji to buy wild ginseng. At first, Zhang Ji was still hanging around various pharmacies in the capital, but as time went by, he also learned the inside story.

These ginseng were purchased by drug stores from businessmen traveling to Liaodong. An extra layer of middlemen would naturally increase profits. In order to save money, Zhang Ji began to contact these chambers of commerce and purchase ginseng directly from them.

In this way, Zhang Ji got to know many Liaodong businessmen in the process of purchasing wild ginseng, and he also learned that Liaodong has a lot of specialties.

Taking this opportunity, under Wei Guangde's instruction, a small business group composed of Liaodong merchants and Jiujiang merchants was established. Including Huitong Trading Company, many Jiujiang merchants in Beijing joined it to trade.

Despite Wei Guangde's protection, land transportation still cannot guarantee safe and smooth transportation for the isolated Liaodong Town, especially outside Shanhaiguan, which is a mixed settlement area. Not only Han people live there, but also many Mongolians are nomadic here. But they are all tribes that have a relatively good relationship with the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, the terrain in many places along the way is complicated. Not only are there mountains and mountains, but the mountain roads are rugged. There are also many bandits and robbers. They don’t care whose name you are holding. Once you enter their territory, they will naturally find ways to rob you. Coming down, only by forming a large caravan with stronger power than them can we pass safely.

Moreover, even if you have Wei Guangde's famous assassin, you can only guarantee that you can pass the customs. No one will trouble you and forcibly detain the caravan's goods, but the money you should pay is indispensable.

With these obstacles, a large amount of the caravan's goods were transported by sea to Shandong for turnover, and were transported back to the capital from Shandong or directly to the south of the Yangtze River through the canal.

Wei Guangde doesn't know how to do business, but since he has worked so hard to do this, he naturally has his own stake in this chamber of commerce.

If you want to get a piece of the pie, you will naturally protect this group.

Although Wei Guangde is a Beijing official, after all, the official position is so big, and sometimes it is really difficult to use. So last year, because of some minor troubles in Shandong, he also got a famous tattoo of Xu Jie through Zhang Juzheng's relationship. .

Although Wei Guangde's title as Censor was sometimes deceiving, in order to avoid trouble and increase his contact with Mr. Xu Ge, he still spent money to get one.

With these connections, Wei Guangde naturally became interested when he heard the news.

Yuwang's focus on sea trade has also shifted to sea transportation. In fact, the costs of sea transport and land transport are very comparable.

Transporting a large amount of goods by sea to Shandong may seem to take more distance, but the actual cost can be reduced by 30% and the safety is higher.

When passing through Shanhaiguan by land, in addition to being exploited by officials along the way, the imperial court also levied commercial taxes at Shanhaiguan. For those unearthed from Zhongtu, Shanhaiguan would be charged 6 cents and Liaodong 4 cents. For those entering the customs from Liaodong, Liaodong would be charged 6 cents and Shanhai 4 cents.

As for sea transportation, goods entering and exiting Liaodong are carried out by entrainment, just like canal grain ships. You only need to give the soldiers a certain amount of money.

Although King Yu did not say it explicitly, he is also looking forward to shipping and even sea trade.

It is unclear, but it was also because of the attitude of Emperor Jiajing.

At this banquet, Wei Guangde also roughly inquired about the Ministry of Household Affairs' views on this, that is, as long as Liaodong has a good agricultural harvest and no longer needs food assistance from the mainland, it is indeed possible to consider not transporting food by sea. However, as long as the problem of food shortage in Liaodong is not solved, Shipping cannot be interrupted.

The attitude of the Ministry of War is relatively conservative, or it should be said that it is a young radical force among conservatives.

For security reasons, the Ministry of War has actually always opposed the establishment of a sea ban.

Originally, the resources that the Ministry of War can obtain every year are not many, and they are slightly insufficient to cover the nine sides. Naturally, there is not much power to invest in coastal defense.

Maritime transportation to Liaoning forced the Ministry of War to dig out a sum of money from the scant funds to buy a new batch of warships for the Denglai Navy to ensure the safety of the waterway.

Although Liaodong is vast in area, it is not an independent region in the administrative division of the Ming Dynasty. It has always been integrated into the jurisdiction of the Shandong Chief Secretary. However, the military town model, that is, military control, was implemented in Liaodong.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial court attached great importance to Liaodong. The Hongwu and Yongle dynasties migrated people to Liaodong many times. However, because Liaodong had not been fully developed at that time and the living conditions were extremely harsh, few people could really take root here. The immigration policy had little effect. micro.

In fact, from the perspective of the Ming Dynasty government, it is not cost-effective to implement the same rule as the mainland in Liaodong. Due to the poor local basic conditions, the entire Liaodong cannot bring much tax revenue to the Ming Dynasty, but the cost of governance is extremely high. high.

It is for this reason that the Ming Dynasty did not attach much importance to civil affairs in Liaodong except for the military aspect.

The imperial court's emphasis on Liaodong's military aspects was mostly to form an encirclement situation against the Northern Yuan Dynasty from the northeast.

With the multiple Northern Expeditions during the Hongwu and Yongle years, the Northern Yuan Dynasty had completely collapsed. By the Renxuan period, the Tatars and Oaras were busy competing for grassland dominance and could no longer pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty. The strategic role of Liaodong began to decline significantly. .

During the Jiajing period, although the rise of the Mongolian Ada Khan tribe once again posed a threat to the Ming Dynasty, due to financial difficulties, it was difficult for the court to repeat the large-scale military operations like those in the early Ming Dynasty and conduct conquests on the Mongolian grasslands. Its attitude towards Liaodong also changed. It was very shaky and unable to improve Liaodong's military power again.

Wei Guangde certainly knew that the strategic value of the entire northern land, extending all the way to the vast Siberian region of the Arctic Ocean, was huge, especially the extremely rich resources there.

However, in the face of the cruel environment, even Liaodong could not allow the Han people to take root and live. It was naturally an extravagant hope to continue to expand their territory to the north. Unexpectedly, the Jurchen people and other northern ethnic groups were forced to move south, praying for a place to survive in the border areas of the Ming Dynasty. land.

There is no way to build towns and relocate people, and you can only rely on sending a team of elite soldiers to patrol from time to time. This kind of rule will not work at all. No one will be convinced of the territorial rights you claim.

It is still a state of law of the jungle. If you want to control an area, you must achieve true dominance, and the comparison is still with fists.

When others come, you must be able to drive them away. This is your territory.

If you can't beat someone, then you have to give up.

Overseas now, the vigorous Age of Discovery launched by Europeans has directly carved up the newly discovered continent.

But once the partition is completed, it does not become an established fact.

In fact, countless wars, large and small, would break out in the future to compete for these colonies.

It was not until the British confirmed their hegemony that such wars gradually declined.

In Wei Guangde's view, his involvement in Liaodong's business is creating opportunities for the people who migrated there, so that they can live a better life.

Only when the people of Liaodong are prosperous can they live and work in peace and contentment.

When King Yu comes to power, he can try to mention this matter again, migrate some people to Liaodong again, continue to expand the territory northward, and slowly engulf that land.

If he rushes to build a big city somewhere in the far north, he will not be able to attract the population and the soldiers will not be willing to go. Then countless military households will inevitably flee.

It is really impossible to live in the north now, and the living conditions are too difficult.

If you want to keep this big city running, you can only invest a lot of money, but the Ming Dynasty simply does not have such money to expand its territory to the north.

Even going north, apart from furs and mountain goods, there really wasn’t much profitable business in this era, and huge manpower and material resources had to be spent on transporting supplies. It was really not worth the gain. No wonder King Yu couldn’t afford to be angry with the north. The slightest bit of interest.

Even if Wei Guangde gave the reason for opening up the territory, it was still invalid.

Even in later generations, the vast area of ​​Siberia for development was still limited. The ecological environment was really too harsh. Perhaps only Maozi living at the same latitude could adapt to such an environment.

However, what makes Wei Guangde feel a little relieved is that although Shandong has channeled the connections in the court and let people speak out on this matter, after all, at this stage, neither the Ministry of Revenue nor the Ministry of War have focused their main energy in this direction.

In Jiangnan, although Zhang Lian was executed, the wave of rebellion that was triggered became stronger and stronger.

Many bandits in the past quickly expanded their power after seeing Zhang Lian's uprising, and they followed suit. Many of Zhang Lian's old bandits hid in the mountains and forests to avoid the army and then started revolting again. They are already spreading everywhere. What's more, Xinghua Fucheng is still occupied by Japanese pirates.

"Shandai, I heard from my teacher yesterday that Dayou's appointment as the general military officer of Fujian may have to be delayed for a while, and the order will be issued only after taking over Fuxinghua Prefecture."

Wei Guangde was looking through the copied ceremony that had been sent to him in the first two days, and Zhang Juzheng beside him whispered to him.

"Why delay?"

Wei Guangde was a little strange. This matter had been talked about for a long time, but the decree had not been issued, so naturally it could only be regarded as a rumor.

A few days ago, I got another confirmation from Zhang Juzheng, but I didn't expect to say this again today.

"I heard that in order to conquer Fuxinghua in Fujian, generals such as Liu Xian, Yu Dayou, and Qi Jiguang were sent to lead their troops. At present, Qi Jiguang's troops are still in Zhejiang, and Yu Dayou is still gathering troops. If an order is issued at this time, When Yu Dayou was promoted to the rank of Chief Military Officer of Fujian, Generals Liu and Qi were a little embarrassed."

Zhang Juzheng explained.

"As for Yu Dayou, he had a letter a few days ago, saying that Ye Huai of Anyuan County, Ganzhou Prefecture, Li Wenbiao of Longnan County and others had gathered to cause chaos. He was about to go back when he returned. I am afraid that this was the reason why he was delayed in taking over Fuxinghua Fucheng."

Wei Guangde nodded and said.

People in Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi continued to gather to make trouble. This was only known from Yu Dayou's letter. Originally, Wei Guangde thought that by annihilating Zhang Lian, Jiangnan would be able to stay in peace for a while.

"By the way, uncle, I wonder if you know anything about shipping to Jiliao?"

When Wei Guangde said this, he suddenly thought of the news he heard two days ago, so he asked.

"You're talking about this. I know that when there was a famine in Liaodong, the Ministry of Household Affairs requested permission to purchase grain from Denglai, Shandong and other places and send it to Liaodong to stabilize the place."

Zhang Juzheng put down the book in his hand, looked at Wei Guangde and replied.

"I wonder if the cabinet has discussed this matter?"

Wei Guangde asked tentatively.

"You mean Shandong side?"

Xu Jie has now replaced Yan Song, so he naturally has a good understanding of the situation in the DPRK and will know about it as soon as possible. As the successor he selected and trained, Zhang Juzheng is also very well-informed.

Wei Guangde just said the beginning, and he already roughly knew the reason.

Wei Guangde's family members were involved in business with Liaodong, and Zhang Juzheng also knew about this.

In fact, in this era, it is not surprising that most officials have someone in their family involved in these side businesses.