The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Hearing Wei Guangde mention the business interests and river officials in the towns along the river, Chen Yiqin and others on the side were a little dismissive before, but those who were not very willing to listen to Wei Guangde's opinions put aside their previous thoughts.

Wei Guangde's ability to mention these two points at least shows that he is qualified to be an official. He knows that the first priority in officialdom is balance. Only by balancing the interests of all parties can policy implementation be promoted.

In fact, when Jia Yingchun proposed the idea of ​​"shipping by sea", most people in Prince Yu's palace were opposed to it. Except for Gao Gong, who clearly supported Jia Yingchun, and Gao Gong's status in Prince Yu's palace was also transcendent. So even if everyone else objects, King Yu is still very hesitant.

You must know that this first performance after transferring to the Minister of Household Affairs is very important. If the emperor's wishes are met, his career will be smooth. If the performance is wrong, he may not be far away from becoming an official.

There were many memorials to maritime transportation in the Ming Dynasty. After the shift to river transportation in the middle and late Yongle period, ministers in all dynasties suggested restarting maritime transportation to make up for the lack of river transportation capacity, but the results were all in vain.

From the bottom of his heart, Wei Guangde supported Jia Yingchun's idea, but Wei Guangde did not intend to support Jia Yingchun here because this memorial was likely to be counterproductive.

Changing sea transportation actually directly shakes the national policy implemented by the Ming Dynasty for nearly two hundred years. According to Wei Guangde's understanding of Emperor Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing at this time may not be willing to make such a big change. Now he just wants stability.

Emperor Jiajing is now in his fifties, so he is not young.

Confucius said: "When I was fifteen, I was determined to learn; when I was thirty, I was established; when I was forty, I was not confused; when I was fifty, I knew the destiny; when I was sixty, my ears were obedient; when I was seventy, I followed my heart's desires without exceeding the rules."

By that age, he should already know his destiny. The current Emperor Jiajing should just want to work hard in the last few years of his life and make a final effort to cultivate the path to immortality for half a lifetime.

Changing river transportation to sea transportation may have been proposed around the 10th year of Jiajing and might have attracted his attention. After all, Emperor Jiajing was young and vigorous at that time, and he was also enterprising. He was at the age where he hoped to make some achievements, but now Well

Although Wei Guangde was indeed a little moved after hearing Jia Yingchun's idea, because he found that shipping could be used as a breakthrough to break the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban.

If a large number of future grains are transported directly from the south of the Yangtze River to Tianjin through ocean-covering ships, the Ming court's fear of the ocean will be reduced. Those who have repeatedly claimed that "the sea water is vast and boundless, the waves are unpredictable, and Japanese pirates may occasionally plunder and plunder, which is a double disaster." There should be fewer people expressing opinions.

However, this cannot change too many people at all, because those who really oppose "sea transportation" are those who consider their commercial interests or other interests. They don't care about right and wrong at all, and they don't care about the increased consumption of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year. Anyway, these Money is borne by the people at the bottom, who only care about their own interests.

In fact, although the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is still sailing together, its cargo transportation capacity fluctuates every year and is not stable because there is a risk of interruption of navigation.

It was the flood season when there was a lot of water, so sailing was of course risky.

When there is little water, it means drought, and it is difficult to sail a boat. Even the trackers on both sides of the strait are very inefficient.

As for the increased burden of water transportation on the people and the squeeze on the canal army, Wei Guangde actually didn't really care about it.

It's not that Wei Guangde doesn't care about the common people since he became an official, but he knows that no matter in which era, it is inevitable for the bottom class to be squeezed by the top class.

Even if Emperor Jiajing agreed to change water transportation to sea transportation, the target of exploitation by the upper class would only change from the people along the river to the people along the coast.

The people along the river and the canal army can enjoy the benefits brought by the suspension of water transportation for a while, but it will never last long. Soon they will find that life is still as miserable as before.

Because water transportation is no longer available, their income will also be reduced by a large amount. The days when people went to work along the river to earn money during their spare time are gone forever.

The responsibilities of the Cao Army remain the same, but the route they take has changed, but the squeeze will not be less, and because there is no commercial demand from the cities along the river, their income will be even less.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty repeatedly revised the water transportation system, trying to achieve a balance that could meet the needs of all parties.

For example, allowing the Cao ships to carry some commodities during the transportation of grain was a kind of compensation to the Cao army, because the imperial court also knew that if it did not compensate the Cao army, the transportation would be a loss, and it would inevitably lead to great changes.

Water ships also have a higher passing rate than merchant ships on the Grand Canal. During dry seasons, the transportation of water ships is more advantageous than merchant ships, so merchants are also willing to use water ships to transport goods and avoid customs taxes.

Wei Guangde sighed in his heart and decided to give up this opportunity. It would seem more certain to consider promoting sea transportation under the new emperor after the final days of Emperor Jiajing were passed smoothly.

The new emperor must always show an enterprising attitude. It is normal to reform some systems. Even if he makes a mistake in the end, he can just quietly change it back. He can also use his lack of experience in governing as an excuse. In the end, the person who takes the blame is also a cabinet minister. .

“It is well known that water transportation has many disadvantages. From the maintenance and dredging of canals to the management of passing ships, the people along the river and tens of thousands of water troops are also suffering from this.

I just don’t know if Great Situ has a detailed plan. As I said before, countless people have proposed this strategy in the past, but none of them have adopted it. Why?

This shows how strong the opposition forces are. Without a flawless operation plan, this strategy cannot be ignored. "

Wei Guangde continued.

"There is no perfect plan. No matter how complete it is, opponents will always find reasons to criticize it."

Jia Yingchun shook his head and sighed. He is not a novice who is ignorant of practical matters. Even if there is good governance that benefits the country and the people, there will be people who suffer losses, and they will find various reasons to refute you.

What's more, it's hard to say whether it's a good or bad new policy for "sea transportation". However, the current "river transportation" is under huge pressure and has already affected the stability of places along the river. Therefore, on the way from Nanjing to Beijing, Jia Yingchun was there. Think about this.

Knowing that the resistance would be great, rashly raising it directly would make him the target of the people in the court, so he was not stupid and did not raise it directly. Instead, he raised it in Prince Yu's palace now, depending on the attitude of the princes in Prince Yu's palace.

Sure enough, except for Gao Gong, no one else was optimistic about it. Even King Yu shook his head and thought it was definitely not feasible.

The person in front of him is a young hero whom Gao Gong values ​​​​more. According to what Gao Gong said before, this person has outstanding vision and extraordinary knowledge. He can often solve problems in his own way. He may choose to support his point of view, but he did not expect Gao Gong to be dissatisfied. when.

The reasons for other people's objections have actually been raised by previous generations of emperors, so they don't need to go to great lengths to find reasons for their objections. They can just use the original principles to refute them.

Originally, he wanted to find an ally to support him, but Wei Guangde chose to oppose it.

"There is nothing wrong with changing river transportation to sea transportation. I don't agree with Da Situ's proposal at this time because it is destined to be abandoned today and will never be implemented, even if it is just a small trial as you said. , whether to increase or decrease based on the test results, it is impossible for His Majesty to agree to it today."

Wei Guangde didn't want to talk about the so-called reason with him. In fact, the previous government had already made it very clear when they argued about this.

The reason for the objection is also correct. There is no fraud. This policy is beneficial to the court but harmful to the people. If implemented, it may cause civil unrest among the people along the river.

Don't talk about the right or wrong of policies, let's talk about it from the emperor.

It's just that at this time, no matter what era it is, it's a bit taboo to talk about the top bosses. What's more, what Wei Guangde wants to say is something he has thought of before, but he has never found the opportunity to do something big.

"The reason why His Majesty disagrees is actually very simple. You might have given it a try thirty years ago."

Since he violated a taboo, Wei Guangde had to speak tactfully, so as not to take the truth seriously and ignore the safety of the dragon body.

The people in the room were not stupid, and they had been paying attention to Xiyuan's body.

In fact, except for Xiyuan, who looks great, not to mention the three princes before him, the remaining two sons are not in very good health.

Don't ask why Prince Yu's Mansion also knew about Prince Jing's physical condition. That was really complicated.

Sure enough, after Wei Guangde said this, everyone else understood Wei Guangde's meaning instantly.

"Could it be."

Jia Yingchun said a little frustrated, but as soon as he said two words, Wei Guangde waved his hand and interrupted: "I said, I support Da Situ's shipping strategy, but now is not the time."

After saying this, Wei Guangde looked around at the people in the room. They were all officials of Prince Yu's palace, and they belonged to the people who were tied to a carriage with Prince Yu. They were both prosperous and destructive, so they could still rest assured.

"Everyone should understand what I mean. Don't be intimidated by the impeachment of those officials from the previous administration. When we have free time, we can still discuss Da Situ's plan, brainstorm ideas, learn from each other's strengths, and strive to come up with a plan with practical value. When the time is right, we can try this strategy according to Da Situ’s wishes.”

Although Wei Guangde did not fully support his strategy like Gao Gong, his words just now can be regarded as praising him. The strategy is right, but it is not suitable in practice.

But Jia Yingchun naturally understood the timing of what Wei Guangde said.

As Wei Guangde said, perhaps if he submitted the memorial himself, Emperor Jiajing would directly retain it, or worse still, reject it, and the probability of approval is indeed low.

After finally returning to the capital, Jia Yingchun has not yet realized that even though tens of thousands of people have gone there, he has not yet had enough of being an official.

In this case, it seems that Wei Guangde's words are very reasonable. He will continue to improve the plan and wait for His Royal Highness King Yu to try it when he ascends the throne.

"What Shandai said makes sense. I think it's settled. Da Situ must have figured it out too."

Gao Gong nodded to Wei Guangde's statement. He also had concerns in this regard, that is, the emperor was old and did not want to change, but he did not say it out loud, but wanted to test others to see if any of them could think of going there.

It's a pity that no one, whether it's Chen Yiqin or anyone else he's optimistic about, mentioned the issue of the emperor's dragon body.

Fortunately, this young and shameless little Chuanlu thought of it.

It’s true, God bless King Yu.

They had all risen to the emperor's dragon body. Jia Yingchun just nodded and could not continue talking.

"Come, drink, drink, pick up your glass, and let's go together."

At this time, Li Fang and Eunuch Li said happily.

After everyone picked up their glasses and drank down the wine, Eunuch Li smiled and said that the food was cold, so he got up and asked someone to come in and heat the food.

Wei Guangde hurriedly stood up and waved his hand to stop Eunuch Li who had already stood up. However, he was not going to call people in on Eunuch Li's behalf as others suspected. Instead, he looked around at everyone again and waited until Eunuch Li sat down again before speaking. : "Actually, His Royal Highnesses King Yu and King Jing are already adults. According to the ancestral system, one of them should go out and become a vassal."

"Um?"

"ah?"

Wei Guangde's inexplicable conversation led to the taboo that the people of Prince Yu's Palace were least willing to touch. Who doesn't know that this topic is sensitive, but now the princes of Prince Yu's Palace are really a little unconfident, probably because of the pressure of Yan Song, the chief minister of the dynasty. Too prosperous.

According to the ancestral system, it was King Jing who should have signed the vassal status when he was out, and it should have been done after the wedding of the two kings, but it was delayed for two years and was not implemented.

Not to mention the implementation, in the current court, everyone only dares to discuss it privately, and no one dares to go to the memorial to talk about it.

It’s not that everyone doesn’t understand, it’s that they are afraid that in the end, there will be consequences and developments that most “loyal” people least want to see.

It is a well-known fact that His Majesty favors King Jing and alienates King Yu. Even Yan Shifan, who was accustomed to knowing the mind of Emperor Jiajing, is on good terms with King Jing. Doesn't this explain the problem?

There were many people in the court who supported King Yu, but they also had many concerns, so they did not dare to act rashly.

It's just that at this time today, Wei Guangde brought up the matter of "the king of the vassal becoming a vassal", and Gao Gong and others couldn't help but take it seriously, because this boy had just received the secret order from Emperor Jiajing. Could it be that the one in the palace couldn't wait any longer and asked him to do so? Wei Guangde came to mention this matter?

"Why are you talking about this all of a sudden?"

High arched wonder.

"It's not normal for two adult princes to stay in the capital all the time. Those who should leave must leave, and those who should stay must stay."

Wei Guangde replied.

"We also wanted to raise this matter before when the two kings were getting married, but after analyzing the consequences, we gave up. Does Shandai think this is an opportunity?"

Yin Shizhen said.

At this time, Jia Yingchun was undoubtedly the one with the highest official position among the people, but he was also the one with the least say.

He had been away from the capital for many years on many matters, and it was only in the past six months that he gradually participated in the discussions among the people in the palace, so he was not sure whether they had discussed this before.

"It's not about stating the matter now, but planning. Although I don't see the time to do so, but if there is no chance, we can find ways to create opportunities. In the end, we will squeeze King Jing away."

Wei Guangde said without any scruples at this time, not worrying at all that the wall had ears or something.

If outsiders could still hear what they had discussed in the private restaurant of Prince Yu's Mansion, Prince Yu would have better choose a fiefdom as soon as possible.

"Go ahead and report the situation to the king, but what if it is rejected?"

Chen Yiqin said: "At the time of the wedding of the two kings, we wanted to unite with other adults in the court who supported King Yu to jointly submit a letter requesting that King Jing be granted vassal status. However, someone came up with this and everyone was afraid to do so. It’s time to play.”