The commercial war broke out suddenly in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but the turmoil in the capital was generally over, at least the superficial harmony was restored.
Wang Jiaping was relatively calm about his unexpected appointment to the cabinet, and still adhered to his principles as a person and an official. Even though he had learned from his own channels that this appointment to the cabinet was promoted by Gao Jingshi, he did not run over to thank Gao Jingshi.
Gao Pragmatic didn't bother to argue. Anyway, he had long known that Wang Jiaping was quite naughty. Being able to take Pan Sheng's position and join the cabinet was a compromise in itself.
Besides, Gao Pragmatic is not in a hurry. Wang Jiaping is from Shanxi. Even if he behaves impartially in the cabinet, he will not be truly recognized by the Xin School. Moreover, except for the top few officials of the Xin School, no one else has much overall strategic thinking. They might even target Wang Jiaping inexplicably. Then Wang Jiaping will know who he can rely on.
Of course, Wang Jiaping himself also knew that the current imperial court was a battle between the two schools of practical learning and spiritual learning. He was afraid that he would not be able to play a big role as a helpless empty-headed cabinet. In addition, he had just joined the cabinet and had many "business matters". "It still needs a familiarization process, so it doesn't show much, and it can only be used as a hand-raising tool for the time being.
As for Shen Shixing, perhaps this incident gave him some shock. Yuan Fu, who had just come to power, also put away his mentality of fishing in troubled waters some time ago and began to become more cautious. He would also symbolically handle matters in the cabinet. Ask Zhang Xueyan and Wu Dui for their opinions.
On the whole, the imperial court has passed the chaotic period caused by Zhang Siwei's sudden death and is back on track.
For a moment, everyone fell silent, except Gao Pragmatic, who was no different from the past - he neither disappeared suddenly, nor deliberately kept a high profile and showed his face everywhere, but adhered to his consistent style: being a low-key person and doing things in a high-profile manner.
As Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of War who assists in the military affairs of Beijing Camp, of course, high-profile matters can only be related to Beijing Camp.
In the next two to three months, Gao Pragmatic mainly did two major things. First, the Beijing Camp established a very new organization: the "Jingying Production and Construction Corps"; second, the Imperial Guard has initially completed its planned establishment.
It is shameful to say that Gao Pangshi, the "creator of the Imperial Guard," actually once again became the hands-off boss. From recruitment to settlement, from settlement to training, he left everything to Qi Jiguang, the first commander of the Imperial Guard. As for himself, he is just a "hands-on" - well, to put it simply, he is responsible for providing money.
Of course, Gao Pragmatic certainly didn't pay for it himself. He was responsible for helping the Imperial Guard get the money.
There are two ways to make money, one is to ask "the boss" for help, and the other is to earn money yourself.
But Gao pragmatically decided to go both ways.
The so-called asking for it from the top is actually the Ministry of War itself is the "top" of the imperial guards and even the Beijing camp, but the money of the Ministry of War is allocated from the Ministry of Household Affairs, so in the final analysis, the money mainly has to go to the Ministry of Household Affairs.
According to general understanding, Hubu is one of the strongholds of the Practical School, and Shen Li, the Minister of Hubu, is a highly pragmatic senior. It should be easier to handle things like asking for money.
But this is not the case, this money is not easy to get.
The principle that the butt determines the head makes sense everywhere. Although Shen Li is one of the important ministers from the Real School, since he has become the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, it is impossible not to consider the yamen he controls. Although the economic pressure caused by this year's war in Yunnan and Burma has been eliminated a lot by pragmatic means such as the use of Yunnan war treasure banknotes, the current revenue and expenditure situation of the imperial court is still very tight.
At this time, the Ministry of War suddenly asked for money. As the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, he must be cautious. He cannot unconditionally listen to your arrangements just because you are the recognized "future leader" of our school of thought. If there is a big mistake here, I will not be held responsible. It's up to me and someone else to take the responsibility. I can't fail at the last hurdle before entering the cabinet.
Even though he gave Gao Jingjing enough face and got Gao Jingjing's assurance that if something really happened in the Ministry of Accounts, I, Gao Jingjing, would never stand by and watch, but in the end Shen Li only came up with 120,000 taels of silver, and only the first batch of people arrived. Eighty thousand taels - this money is used to replace the weapons and equipment of the Imperial Guard.
The arsenal of Jingying actually sounds pretty good. After all, the previous various changes of equipment have placed Jingying at the top. But it sounds like one thing, and the reality is another.
After Gao Yingshi personally inspected the arsenal of Jingying, he learned that, except for the weapons and equipment purchased directly from Jinghua and allocated to Jingying in recent years, which were still "usable", the previous armaments were simply ridiculous.
There wasn't much wrong with the number, at least it was barely manageable, but the level of maintenance was truly staggering - some of the armor was so rotten that pieces of armor fell off the ground when I picked them up.
As for the maintenance level of weapons, it is about the same. For example, at least 40,000 Yanling waist knives that Gao Pragmatic inspected personally were so rusted that there was a huge question mark on whether they could cut firewood.
How could such a pragmatic thing be used by the Imperial Guard? Therefore, almost all of these basic equipment need to be repurchased. After calculating the results, even if the Imperial Guards were not given many spare weapons and equipment for the time being, the replacement of only 60,000 people would cost almost 300,000 taels.
Three hundred thousand taels were definitely not available now, so Gao Pragmatic had to spend some money on his own. Shangshu told Zhu Yijun that the Ministry of War planned to get a batch of arms from Jinghua Musket Factory and Jinghua Artillery Factory on credit and pay them off in two or three years. Jinghua will not charge interest this time.
Zhu Yijun was very moved and approved it on the same day. Unexpectedly, the Ming Dynasty officials, fearing that they would be ignored, suddenly jumped out to four or five science and education officials to impeach Gao pragmatism, saying that he was using power for personal gain.
According to them, the armaments of the Beijing camp are the best in the world. Even the newly trained Imperial Guards can be used by them. After all, the Imperial Guards only have 60,000 people. With the weapons of more than 400,000 people in the past, only six soldiers can be armed. Ten thousand people, how could it not be enough? How could you possibly need to buy it again? Therefore, Gao Pragmatic must have done something here to attract business for Jinghua's military industry.
It stands to reason that such an accusation against an important civil servant who has achieved great military exploits requires conclusive evidence, but the Ming Dynasty officials did not need it, because they "heard about the incident" and only needed to say that they "heard" that the capital camp was well-armed. That's fine, the actual situation and so on... that's not their business.
Gao pragmatic had no choice but to resign, and at the same time asked the emperor to send personnel to conduct a thorough investigation, and at the same time locked himself in Jianxinzhai and "ignored the incident."
Zhu Yijun's attitude towards Gao pragmatically was much better than towards Pan Sheng. After receiving Gao pragmatically's resignation, he got angry on the spot - "Go to the Royal Wenhua Palace in anger, summon all the great scholars to come, and denounce the words." Those who are indulgent and slander important ministers should be punished for their crimes. Remember that our ancestors had a system, and now the power is placed on their heads, they will all be demoted to three levels of foreign posts. If there are still people who don't know how to restrain themselves, no matter what position they hold now, they will all be demoted to the third level. Thousands of miles.”
Zhu Yijun's anger was a bit fierce, especially the words he used were murderous, "The crime should be punished," "The power is placed on the heads of others," and "No matter where you are now, you will travel three thousand miles." .
Looking back, this seems to be the most severe warning on the way of speech since Jinshang took the throne.
At the same time, Zhu Yijun also issued an order to comfort Gao Jingshi with gentle words. After first praising Gao Jingshi, he asked him to "take care of the matter immediately."
However, Gao Pragmatic still had to act according to the Ming Dynasty's usual script, so he continued to go to court to ask the emperor for a thorough investigation, and at the same time continued to stay at home to "read and reflect on himself."
Zhu Yijun had no choice but to continue to cooperate with the performance, once again issued a gentle edict to comfort him, and once again asked him to "take care of the matter immediately, and never let down my sincere wishes."
At this time, the drama was in place. Gao Yingshi officially returned to the Ministry of War to "take care of matters". At the same time, he asked Liang Menglong to write a letter in the name of the Minister of War and "make a note" to allocate guns and artillery to the two major military factories in Beijing to supplement the needs of the Imperial Guard (Gao Pragmatic At the request of the People's Liberation Army, the degree of firearmsization of the Praetorian Guards was quite high). At the same time, he also used real money and silver to buy a batch of new armor, cotton armor and other items from the Wang family's arsenal, which was barely enough to meet the current needs of the Imperial Guard.
In this way, the issue of the armament of the Imperial Guard was initially solved, but the money to raise the soldiers was not available, so Gao Pragmatic started to think about the Beijing camp again.
Gao Wuchen now has a deep understanding of these nobles who have managed the Beijing camp for generations. This group of people basically have no intention of making achievements - because their achievements are of no use. The achievements of their ancestors have already determined their current status, and to surpass the achievements of their ancestors, that... would be too embarrassing.
Because they have no desire to make contributions, and at the same time they dare not truly seize power to avoid being attacked by civil servants, their habits are actually easy to understand: to ensure their noble status and at the same time reap financial benefits, that is their biggest look forward to.
Gao Pragmatic has the ability to help them with this and at the same time solve the problem of insufficient pay for the Imperial Guards.
The "Beijing Production and Construction Corps" is such a product.
Of course, the name Gao Pragmatic directly copied the establishment of a certain area in the Hong Dynasty, and the nature of its work was similar to the Hong Dynasty but slightly simpler. The main task of this "Beijing Production and Construction Corps" is of course production and construction, but more generally speaking, it is to make money.
Gao Yingshi and Zhu Yingzhen discussed it many times, and finally decided to give full play to their existing advantages and use the advantage of "people and land" in Jingying to make money. Specific to the short-term approach, it is still inevitable to cooperate with Jinghua.
Since the Beijing camp itself belongs to the Fifth Army Governor's Office, and the Fifth Army Governor's Office in Yanjing manages many military camps around the capital and various types of land allocated to the military from the beginning of the country, it has capital in its hands.
However, because these nobles only knew a few acres of land, the Jingying camp also guarded Jinshan to beg for food. In fact, there is a lot of land belonging to various Gyeonggi regional health centers, and according to Gao Pragmatic's vague memory, a lot of it is also very useful.
But what works is what works. It is impossible for Gao Pragmatic to buy all the land and dig it himself. There is a cost issue. For example, in areas where various types of limestone, marble, and white marble are produced, people with high pragmatism are not very interested in buying land directly.
But for Jinghua Infrastructure, the importance of these production areas is very prominent. Now Jinghua Infrastructure has a very heavy task at hand, especially Siam, which is vigorously building Dingna City. The amount of raw materials for infrastructure construction is very large. Jinghua Infrastructure has already Gao Pragmatic has been suggested several times to expand the system's establishment scale within the Jinghua system, and plans to personally organize the output of raw materials.
However, after thinking pragmatically, Gao felt that Jinghua's business scope was now too broad. If he had to handle all these materials by himself, I am afraid that within a few years, the total number of employees in Jinghua would exceed one million. That would be terrible. , and it is easy to arouse the vigilance of the court - especially the officials looking for trouble.
So when it's time to let go, you have to know how to let go. Jinghua can leave the output of these basic materials to more reliable partners, just like he asked the chieftains in Guangxi and Annan to provide wood.
Jinghua does not need complete control, but only needs to control its logistics links. In order not to backlog goods, upstream suppliers and downstream sellers have to pay attention to Jinghua's attitude in order not to be cut off from supply.
That's it.
What's more, when it comes to infrastructure specifically, in addition to logistics, Jinghua's more important thing is to master the processing business - for example, all kinds of limestone. Except for Jinghua, it will be useful in the past. Others buy this thing purely because they have too much money and no place to spend it. , and they cannot produce various cements, fluxes, refractory materials and the like.
Therefore, Jinghua and Jingying, which has control of the land and population, have broad prospects for cooperation.
Therefore, the Jingying Production and Construction Corps first established a mining department. Most of the military households who had nothing to do during the slack period found "employment opportunities" and began to enter the mining industry after receiving simple training from Jinghua Mining.
However, Gao Pragmatic was frightened by the blood-sucking characteristics of these nobles, and he specially negotiated a basic salary standard with them to ensure that they would not treat military households as slaves.
Gao Pragmatic even "taught a class" to them collectively, specifically explaining to them the issue of "production enthusiasm", and used Jinghua itself as an example to illustrate the benefits of "more work, more gain", rather than engaging in a slave relationship - that Gadgets will only hinder the liberation of productivity.
Perhaps it was Gao Pragmatic's eloquence, or perhaps it was Gao Pragmatic's words of deed that convinced them. His lecture really convinced the nobles, and they decided on a very benevolent "more work, more gain" policy. "Principle: 70% of the production income of all military households belongs to the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion and their affiliated guard stations, and 30% belongs to themselves.
However, it was obvious that these vampires still wanted to play some tricks, so it was stipulated that the 30% of the income they received could not be sold by themselves, but had to be calculated by the guards and then discounted to silver.
Of course Gao Pragmatic knew there was something going on here. For example, if the guard station deliberately lowered the price, the military households would be exploited. However, he really couldn't control it so leniently and could only comfort himself: at least in this way, they would still be able to Getting more rewards through hard work is much better than doing things for these nobles in vain before.
Gao's pragmatic approach had little to do with the imperial court itself, and the management of military households was the responsibility of the Fifth Army Governor's Office at the beginning of the People's Republic of China, so it did not cause much repercussions in the court.
However, Gao Pragmatic knew that the impact of this incident was much greater than it seemed.
In fact, he can even say that his actions have fundamentally changed the nature of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion, which means that the reform of practical scholarship has entered a new stage.
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Wuyouwuk Book" and "ASolaF" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
