Gao Jingshi's words may have been a bit confusing. His youngest brother-in-law, Gao Wuruo, obviously didn't understand, so he couldn't help but ask: "Brother, I'm stupid, please give me some details."
As a family of Practical Learning sect, it is a family tradition that brothers, friends and brothers should be respectful. In addition, Gao Wuruo was only sixteen years old, so Gao Pragmatic naturally had to be friendly, so he asked with a kind face: "What don't you understand?"
"I... don't understand." Gao Wuruo was honest and said calmly: "The eldest brother said that it is not difficult to solve the problem of food and clothing for millions of water workers, but the younger brother does not understand. The eldest brother said that there is still something between the Jiangnan Chaebol and Shu Yinglong. I don’t understand other stories either.”
"Haha, it doesn't matter if you don't understand. Brother Yu will clear up your doubts." Gao Pragmatic nodded and said: "Let's talk about the 'millions of Cao workers' food and clothing dependence' first. First of all, the term 'millions of Cao workers' is quite problematic. The Cao army has been around all year round. The number is maintained at 120,000. Although there are shifts, they all come from various guard posts.
The guard posts originally had land. Although the system is now very bad, these guard posts are still guard posts after all. Even if the soldiers of the guard posts do not go to the Cao Army for shifts, they can still make a living in the guard posts. Of course, it’s just about making ends meet. When they work as Cao Army, they actually get an extra income, but you have to know one thing: their real income when they work as Cao Army in shifts is not the salary for transporting grain, but the revenue from privately carrying goods.
In other words, if the imperial court stopped water transportation, all they would really lose would be the opportunity to secretly bring goods under the guise of water transportation. So let’s think about it the other way around, what if the court stopped water transportation but allowed them to continue to carry goods privately? "
Gao Wuruo was completely confused and wondered: "But if the imperial court has stopped water transportation, under what name can they secretly bring goods?"
"It's nothing more than a name. Can't we just give them a name?" Gao Pragmatic smiled and said: "For example, the Cao Army will be changed to the 'Canal Dispatching Department'. From then on, it will face the general public and accept all kinds of cargo transportation, while the Dispatching Department will What’s wrong with charging corresponding fees?”
Gao Wuruo thought for a moment and said hesitantly: "But if this is the case, the imperial court will gain nothing from it. If the imperial court gains nothing, how can it maintain canal dredging and other management?"
"Good question!" Gao Pragmatic praised his younger brother with admiration, and then explained: "Here we need to adjust the tax rate - simply put, it is to set up point taxation. In principle, the court must first The entire canal will be subject to traffic volume controls to avoid vessel congestion.
This requires that the entire canal be divided into many small sections, and each section must be controlled according to a certain amount of boat entry. Vessels entering the canal need to declare their destination and approximate arrival date in advance. The date can have a certain amount of redundancy. to avoid delays along the way.
At the same time, the court imposed taxes on each section of the canal, but there must first be an overall canal tax rate. In this way, the tax rate for each section can be divided proportionally, so that the total transportation cost can be controlled, and the tax rate can be prevented from being too high, making shipping unprofitable, and causing merchants to abandon canal transportation.
In addition to supporting the tax collectors and supervising tax collectors, the excess taxes collected will mainly be used for canal maintenance. Even if there is a surplus in the future, it can also be used for river widening and other purposes.
In this way, the imperial court not only saved hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels of river management expenses every year, but also gradually expanded the canal, and even relied on the canal to feed more people, drive more business exchanges, and strengthen economic exchanges between the north and the south. Especially the economic exchanges along the canal can achieve multiple things with one stone, how beautiful it is! "
Gao Wuruo suddenly understood, but Cao Ke, the business secretary next to him, had some doubts and asked: "Teacher, if canal freight is profitable, what about sea freight?"
"Are you worried that water transport will take away the sea transport business? You are worrying too much." Gao Pragmatic shook his head and said: "Not to mention that the canal only connects the capital to Jiangnan, but it is difficult to cover Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places. Even from the capital to Jiangnan The canal cannot completely handle this line - you have to know that the canal's transportation capacity is limited after all, and the canals on the river are much smaller than sea ships, so the more goods there are, the more suitable it is for sea transportation.
What's more, taxes are collected along the canal, and there are seaport parking fees for shipping (because most of them are private ports). These two taxes and fees can be adjusted according to the situation. If the canal is congested and shipping is insufficient, the canal tax rate can be increased; if shipping is prosperous but the canal is in distress, harbor fees can be increased. All in all, we can achieve a certain balance in river-sea transportation through these adjustments. "
When Gao pragmatically said this, Cao Ke understood and bowed to show that he was taught.
Seeing that the others had no doubts, Gao Wuruo on the side continued: "Then the eldest brother just said that the Jiangnan Chaebol and Shu Yinglong..."
"Although this matter is a guess on my part, it is not difficult to understand." Gao pragmatically said: "Although Shu Yinglong and the Jiangnan Chaebol have reached some private agreements, their interests are not exactly the same. Of course the purpose is different.
What Shu Yinglong wants is to accumulate political capital. Originally, the purpose of accumulating political capital for the governor of water transportation was to ensure the safety and orderliness of water transportation, but this was too slow. He has been the governor of water transportation for several years, but so far he has not had the opportunity to enter the center of the imperial court. This shows that the upper level of the Xin School is too fixed, and it is really difficult for the people below to take the lead.
Then if he hopes to be promoted to the center, he needs two prerequisites: first, someone above him will give up the position, and second, he can take advantage of the situation to take over. Once something as big as the Cajun riot happened, and the emperor wanted to hold him accountable, where would the responsibility lie first?
You may think that if something happens to the Cao Army, the Governor of Cao Transport will naturally be the first person responsible, right? But alas, no. The Cao Army is essentially the troops of various garrison stations along the route. The Governor of Cao Transport only arranges and uses them, and is not responsible for training and drills. He has little to do with whether the battle is successful or not.
The Cao Army's riot in Nanjing was caused by an attack by Japanese pirates. However, the number of Japanese pirates was far lower than that of the Cao Army. No one can say that Shu Yinglong, the governor of water transportation, made a mistake in using troops, which gave the Japanese pirates an opportunity to take advantage of it - twenty to thirty thousand people were killed. When more than a thousand Japanese pirates attacked him like this, it was hard to blame him as the governor of water transportation.
So who is responsible? Naturally, it is in the Ministry of War, or even because the Ministry of Revenue has a customs office and a tax police corps, so it will have to bear some responsibility. So from Shu Yinglong's point of view, if things come to this point, Shen Yuanfu and Wang Ge Lao will definitely put the shit basin on the head of the Ministry of War, there is no doubt about it.
Zhou Benbing took office not long ago, so there seems to be no reason to attack him for this matter, but someone has to be responsible for what happened, right? So if the Heart School manages it properly, Mr. Liang Ge (Liang Menglong) may be responsible for the crime. Even if it is not successful, the Ministry of War or the Ministry of Household may have to sacrifice a minister. In this way, the Heart School You may also seize the opportunity to push one of your own people to mount the horse.
At this moment, if Shu Yinglong quelled the Nanjing Cao Army riot again, would he have a good chance to fill this vacancy, and from then on, he would be promoted from a local official to the central government and become a high official? "
Although some local officials have high status and great power, the style of the Ming Dynasty is that Beijing officials meet at the third level of the National People's Congress, and third-grade ministers often have a higher status than second-grade local officials. Therefore, even if Shu Yinglong only returns to the capital to be a minister, he will be more powerful than a second-grade minister. The governor of water transportation was closer to the emperor - being closer to the emperor meant an increase in status.
Moreover, it is often common for the Minister of Personnel to directly enter the cabinet (usually only the Minister of Personnel does this). As long as he obtains the status of Minister of Personnel first and has the opportunity to become the Minister of Personnel in the future, he may skip the rank of Minister and directly join the cabinet. .
Although the above may sound complicated, it is actually linked to each other. As long as we really develop in this direction, the final result will almost be a matter of course.
Gao Wuruo suddenly understood, nodded repeatedly, and finally asked: "Then the purpose of the Jiangnan Chaebol is just to cut off water transportation and win the business of transporting grain by sea?"
"This is the most direct purpose, but it is not complete." Gao Jingshi shook his head slightly and said thoughtfully: "I think the Jiangnan Chaebol...may not be as determined as before in confronting Beijing. To a certain extent, it was a test for me.”
"Testing brother?" Gao Wuruo said in astonishment: "What do they want to test?"
Gao Pingshi said: "From a superficial level, it is naturally to test whether I can allow them to take an extra share of the shipping business. But from a deeper level, it may be to test whether I have the intention to annex them."
Gao Wuruo didn't react for a moment, but Cao Ke next to him said "Ah" and said in surprise: "They are actually starting to consider surrender? This shouldn't be the case. They are the financial backers of the Xin School, and the Xin School now controls the leadership. Why would they even think about surrendering if they are in the position of assistant?"
After all, Cao Ke was the chief disciple who had followed Gao Jingshi for a longer time and had accompanied Gao Jingshi to Guangxi, so his response was indeed faster. However, what he said was still a bit exaggerated. Gao Pragmatic did not think that the Jiangnan Chaebol was definitely "considering surrender" by doing this. They might just be considering signing a "non-aggression treaty" with him.
As for why they did this, Cao Ke didn't understand the reason, but Gao Pragmatic thought it was very simple.
After all, it is the Gangnam Chaebol. What is the nature of the Chaebol? It’s nothing more than capital. Capital only cares about interests. Anything else that conflicts with interests can be discarded in the eyes of capital. This is true for etiquette, justice, and integrity, and so is it for allied thugs.
There are two classic dialogues in "Yes, Minister": "I want to have a clear conscience." "When did you have such extravagant ideas?" - when used with capital, it is actually perfect.
The Gangnam Chaebol had been fighting against Gao Pragmatic for so many years with the support of the Heart School. Although the two sides almost broke up several times, in the end, because Shin Shixing and Gao Pragmatic both had typical politician attributes, they finally maintained the "fight without breaking" Decent.
However, how they fight at the political level is not actually what the Jiangnan Chaebol really cares about. What the Gangnam Chaebol really cares about is only their own interests. Over the years, Jinghua's strength has become stronger and stronger, and Jiangnan's commercial tax collection has finally been promoted bit by bit.
Seeing that the Dexin School was still unable to protect its own interests despite repeated fights, the Jiangnan Chaebol, as the financial backers behind the scenes, of course had no choice but to find another way.
Since you can't eliminate your opponent, let's try to negotiate. Not to mention the Jiangnan plutocrats, even those capitalist countries in later generations that pride themselves on being gentlemen all day long, who doesn’t have this kind of virtue?
Because of this, although Shu Yinglong and the Jiangnan Chaebol did not know how they came together, that was not important. What was important was that although they had united, they had their own agendas.
Gao Pragmatic laughs at the "unity" of the Heart School because now Shen, Wang, Shu Yinglong and the Jiangnan Chaebol seem to be one, but in fact they all have their own little plans, which is simply more divided than the internal divisions of the Real School.
Although the pragmatic school is divided into two factions, the Gao pragmatic school is obviously stronger. The main deficiency is that Gao Pragmatic himself was unable to join the cabinet due to his age and seniority, thus creating a political double core. As long as the battle against Yuan is victorious, Gao Pragmatic will be enough to gain the title and force Xu Guoyi to accept his leadership.
In essence, although the Practical School is divided into the so-called "radicals" and "conservatives", their political goals are basically the same, and what they compete for is nothing more than leadership. As long as one party has a clear political advantage, it won't be a big deal if the other party gives in.
The Heart School is now more complicated. The interests of the central leaders are inconsistent with the local officials, and the interests of the courtiers and the financial backers behind them are also inconsistent. It seems that as long as someone adds a little spark, they will have an internal quarrel, which is something worth looking forward to.
Gao Pragmatism, who has always been anxious for things like "adding fire", naturally did his part.
"The emperor has handed over the matter of quelling the Nanjing riot of the Cao Army to Duke Wei, and I want to support this matter." Gao pragmatically ordered: "Let the Zhili authorities in South Beijing take action and provide convenience to Duke Wei to the best of their ability.
At the same time, we have to ask them to find a way to spread rumors, saying that I am considering changing the Cao Army into an organization similar to the 'Beijing Production and Construction Corps' in the next step of reform - roughly what I just said is that the Cao Army is responsible for its own profits and losses. Developed for commercial freight and the like. "
As the trade secretary, Cao Ke immediately took note of Gao Pragmatic's words. Needless to say, Intelligence Secretary Gao Qi kept every word of Gao Pragmatic in mind.
However, if it only stops here, it is obviously not enough to add fuel to the fire. Gao Pragmatic must also take other actions.
He first told Cao Ke: "Draft a memorial for me, saying that the capital has enough food and grass, and the incident in Nanjing will not affect the conquest of Yuan Dynasty. Please don't worry, Your Majesty." Then he paused, and then turned to Gao Qi and said : "Inform Secretary-General Liu of today's situation and ask her to arrange for South Beijing to be directly under the Central Government... No, arrange for Wu Xun from Ningbo to discuss a deal with the Jiangnan Chaebol on my behalf.
That is to say, in addition to handing over the grain transportation quota currently controlled by the water transport to them, I also plan to significantly increase the quota for grain transportation and sales from southern Xinjiang to Japan. The transportation of the rice can be left to them, and I, Jinghua, are willing to pay for the freight. "
Cao Ke and Gao Qi both responded first, and then Cao Ke asked again: "Teacher, will Japan's large-scale sales of southern Xinjiang rice cause the Toyotomi family to hoard food as a..."
"It doesn't matter, this is exactly what I want, just do as you are told."
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