The water mist on the Jun Kiln tea cup curled up, seeming to widen the distance between the two parties and blur the boundaries between them. Wang Ziteng looked at the young minister who was still as calm as ever with great interest.
He couldn't remember when and what happened when he first met this guy, but the piece of calligraphy by Mi Wanzhong that he gave to him was still in his house.
"Where there are many flowers and willows, the only way is to spread them; when the wind is fierce and the rain is fierce, only when you stand firm can you see your feet."
It seems that this sentence is very suitable for the relationship between myself and him now, or for future progress and cooperation?
Wang Ziteng didn't know whether Feng Ziying understood and wrote this antithesis himself or whether it was written by someone else, but in any case, it was not easy for him to realize this artistic conception at such a young age.
"You haven't said what you think about the future. Is it just like this, step by step, the minister will go to the minister, the minister to the minister, the minister to the chief minister, and then he will retire to Linquan?"
Wang Ziteng picked up the teacup and took a sip, "I don't think this is what you want."
"Of course." Feng Ziying was also very calm. "Whether it is important or not is important. Of course it is important, but it is not because this position is important, but because you can do more important things in this position. This is the most important. For example, the current emperor So, if you are at the top of the palace, so what?"
Wang Ziteng's heart skipped a beat, this guy really dared to say that, he himself was a civil servant.
"Ziying, it seems that you want to do a lot, and it doesn't seem to be in line with the wishes of the princes in the court." Wang Ziteng smiled, "Then how do you plan to advance your ideas and wishes?"
"There are hundreds of people, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Everyone has different life experiences and different judgments and views on things and situations. It's normal. Seek common ground while reserving differences, and start with the same things first. I've been like this in the past few years. made,....··"
Feng Ziying's words made Wang Ziteng shake his head: "What about 'different'?" It won’t disappear just because you did the same thing. It may even be affected and become bigger and stronger...·”
"Well, what the prince said is correct. There will be two situations. One is that the 'different' party sees the benefits and changes brought by the 'same' and changes their position and converges. The other is that they think it will be more If it harms their interests greatly, the 'deviants' will oppose it more forcefully and fiercely..." Feng Ziying must be very patient, "For example, the use of firearms in the military, whether it is infantry or navy, is very difficult to see with the naked eye. We can clearly see the changes that firearms have brought to the combat effectiveness of the army, so there are more and more supporters. Another example is the development of industry and commerce. More and more farmers have gone to the city to work in silk workshops and cotton cloth workshops. , working in iron smelting workshops, tenants have less and less labor, and landowners cannot rent out some of their land or cannot afford to rent it at a good price. They will hate industry and commerce, thinking that this harms their interests, and will only If there is growing opposition, what should the court do?”
The latter situation mentioned by Feng Ziying occurred in both Shuntian Mansion and Yongping Mansion.
Ports and terminals require more and more labor, and maritime trade fleets require more and more manpower. Even colonization, road construction, housing and logging in places like Dongpan require more and more labor.
Wood processing plants, shipyards, iron smelting plants, iron factories, military factories, cement plants, brick factories, car factories and other workshops and factories all appeared in large numbers in Shuntian Prefecture and Yongping Prefecture, especially in places like Luanzhou, Zunhua, Yuguan, Dago, Miyun, Lulong, Qian'an and other places are blooming everywhere. They are all in urgent need of a large number of laborers and even attracted a large number of immigrants to join them.
In fact, this situation also occurs in Jiangnan.
Suzhou, Huzhou, Songjiang, Yangzhou, Ningbo and other places are quite obvious. However, compared with the narrow and densely populated areas in the south of the Yangtze River, the population concentration trend in the north seems more obvious.
"The country is based on agriculture, Ziying, you don't seem to agree with this?"
Wang Ziteng was not an uneducated person. He was able to move between the positions of Jiedushi of the Beijing Camp and Governor of Xuanda. In addition to being proficient in military affairs, he was also involved in civil affairs. Because of this, he really felt that Feng Ziying was not good enough. Simple, far stronger than his father Feng Tang.
A military general who could fight was like a crucian carp crossing the river in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and a civil servant who knew military skills was not uncommon, but a civil servant who was good at literature and military affairs and was good at economics and people's livelihood was really rare.
"A country based on agriculture
This truth has been a golden rule since the pre-Qin Dynasty. Under the current circumstances, this statement is correct, but I don’t think that the gentry hurt the country because the tenants refused to pay more to rent land. You can lower the land rent, the same If someone comes to rent land, it only means that your landowners are exploiting you too much, making everyone think that it is more cost-effective to work in the workshop, whether it is tenants or long-term workers. If you are willing to lower the land rent and raise the wage, no one will come. Farm for you? There are so many people in the world who cannot afford to eat. Are there still fewer people who freeze to death and starve to death every winter? "
Feng Ziying leisurely lifted up the tea foam with the lid of the tea cup, and continued: "What's more, the development of industry and commerce has really harmed the country, or agriculture? The development of the iron smelting and ironmaking industries has contributed to the creation of needles, sickles, iron The prices of pots, hatchets, kitchen knives, shovels, shovels, iron plows, steel axes, hacksaws, and even all iron materials and iron tools have fallen. As far as I know, in the past three years in Shuntian Prefecture, iron plows, iron pots, and firewood have dropped. The price of knives and kitchen knives drops by almost 30% every year, which means that something that might have cost one tael of silver the year before last can be bought for only five taels of silver this year. This has also led to the use of more tools such as plows and shovels in agriculture. More broadly, isn’t that a good thing?”
"Similarly, the price of steel axes and hacksaws has plummeted, which has led to more use in logging and wood processing. The falling costs have also stabilized the price of wood, which has been on an upward trend, and this has been passed on to industries such as shipbuilding and horse-drawn carriages. It has also stabilized the price increase of vehicles and ships, which will reduce transportation costs for a large number of landowners who also need to use vehicles and ships to transport grain for sale. Isn't this a good thing?" Feng Ziying's eloquent talk also made Wang Ziteng realize it. Governor Xiao Feng, known as the leader of the young scholars of the Great Zhou Dynasty, had extraordinary eloquence and explained economic principles clearly and clearly.
Even Wang Ziteng, who wanted to find loopholes in it to refute, was too lazy to do so.
"I have always thought that the development of industry and commerce has greatly promoted agriculture in all aspects, but this does not mean that the income of landowners will also increase, because it is obvious that with the extensive use of iron tools, sea trade Developed and colonized, places like Dongfan, Luzon, Jiugang, and Jiaozhi will have more convenient connections with the inland areas of the Greater Zhou Dynasty in the future. Like five years ago, ships berthed at these ports in Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Ningbo, and even Yangzhou The main ones are from a few hundred shi to three or four thousand shi. However, with the introduction of Western-style ships, ships with a transport capacity of more than 10,000 shi abound, and can even reach 20,000 to 30,000 shi. This means that, It is very easy and simple to transport japonica rice from places like Dongfan, Wenzhou, and Luzon to Songjiang, Guangzhou, and even Laizhou and Dagu. Luzon, Jiugang, and Jiaozhi are all harvested three times a year. Japonica rice is cheap, and it will be very convenient to transport it to the capital. Cheap,
Wang Ziteng understood what the other party meant. In this case, if places like Luzon, Dongfan, and Jiaozhi use such large grain ships to transport them by sea to places like Dagu and Yuguan, the cost will be very low and water transportation will be affected. , grain prices in Huguang and Jiangnan will also be affected, so when grain cannot be sold at a high price, the income of landowners will definitely drop.
"Ziying, the development of maritime trade will not only have an impact on food prices, right? Planting mulberry and raising silkworms, growing cotton, silk and cotton cloth can be exported in large quantities, which can also make up for the losses of landowners... "
Wang Ziteng thought for a moment before asking.
But Feng Ziying immediately shook her head: "It will have a certain impact, but it is definitely not as big as the impact of shipping grain from overseas in the south. But I think this is a matter of pros and cons. When the price of grain in the north stabilizes, will it be a benefit or a disadvantage to the court?" ?Is it good or bad for the people in the north? It goes without saying that you can't deny such results just because the income of some landowners in Huguang or Jiangnan has been affected, right? Besides, these landowners have converted all their land rent income into money to hide Is it okay to keep it in the cellar? Now that a large amount of silver is being transported into the country from Luzon, the price of silver is falling visibly against the price of gold. Why can't they invest the silver in industry and commerce? No matter how hard it is, you can still make money in a silver bank. How about some interest money?"
Feng Ziying was confident that no one in the Zhou Dynasty could understand the principles of industrial and commercial economy better than herself, and no one could understand the direction of development of this era better than herself. If you have a goal and look for evidence, it will be much easier.
Wang Ziteng had no intention of arguing with Feng Ziying on these minutiae. He wanted to know what Feng Ziying wanted to do in the future and where she wanted to go.
Of course Feng Ziying couldn't answer himself
Which step he will go to, because he himself is not sure now which step he can go to, he can only take one step at a time and wait and see.
But as Wang Ziteng asked, is being a first assistant his ultimate goal? Definitely not, not enough.
"Prince, your question stopped me." Feng Ziying smiled, "I said what I want to do, to make the court strong and the people rich, but what you said is too false and false. You have to ask me what I want to achieve in the end, so that my name will go down in history. , Well, maybe I have done it now, but of course it may not be enough. I also want to have more praise and praise for me, so I will continue, but that is a matter for future generations. I said I will achieve my goal, for sure I need greater power, from the court, the army, businessmen, etc., I will not agree to anyone who blocks my way, I will try my best to persuade him to come with me, or push him away Let him not interfere with me, no matter who it is, but this will be a long-term process. I am patient, but more determined and skillful,..."
