After a seemingly casual episode, Gao Pangshi, Dong Yiyuan, and Liu Wei went to report to the emperor. This is the proper meaning of the question. After all, I came under the guise of returning to Beijing to report on my work, so the due procedures must be followed.
However, although there was great joy in the palace today, the people from the General Affairs Department and the Supervisor of Ceremonies seemed to be unusually efficient in handling matters. Not long after, a senior eunuch came to deal with it specifically.
The person who came was none other than Liu Ping. The last time Liu Ping went to the Korean front, he was too pragmatic. At that time, the emperor wanted to take away the Japanese surrender ships captured in the Sichuan naval battle, which required Gao pragmatism to cooperate with the performance.
But that time, Gao Pragmatic did not agree with this idea. Of course, he did not refuse bluntly, but after raising some problems that would be faced in doing so, he gave another plan that could better relieve the emperor's worries.
The situation at that time was that the emperor wanted those ships because he wanted to get involved in first-hand sea trade, and the fundamental purpose of getting involved in sea trade was to open up money - just to make money, as people say.
The emperor's argument at that time was that he wanted to build a trading fleet led by the inner court and get a share of the maritime trade.
Although Gao Pragmatic's refusal seemed to be tactful and soft-spoken, in fact, he was very firm in his rejection of this matter, and he was determined to implement the plan to dissuade the emperor.
In fact, Gao Pangshi had already made plans to resign once the emperor disagreed - not a pretentious resignation, but a true resignation, that is, if he was not allowed, he would not mind hanging up his hat and leaving.
Why was he, who had always cooperated with the emperor, so determined that time? Because although the motive behind this matter is simple, in Gao Pragmatic's view, the final development will definitely go out of control.
Losing control is the most intolerable thing for Gao Pragmatic, especially if a behemoth like Ming loses control, the serious consequences are simply unimaginable.
Gao Pragmatic believed that if the emperor wanted to enlist the eunuchs in the inner court to engage in the royal fleet, not to engage in navy, but to engage in maritime trade, then this matter would eventually get out of control.
Why? Because the Ming Dynasty royal family had a criminal record in this matter: Zheng He's voyages to the West were criminal records.
Zheng He's voyages to the West are naturally a major feat in the history of Chinese navigation. Later generations have done a lot of research on this and have also given it high praise.
But the problem is that the benefits brought by Zheng He's voyages to the West were seriously unbalanced in distribution. Instead, other interest groups besides the royal family - whether civil servants, military generals, nobles or ordinary people - suffered varying degrees of harm. The harm is serious.
Gao Pragmatic believes that the problems brought about by the voyages to the West include three important points:
In fact, as mentioned just now, the trade gains brought by Zheng He's voyages mainly benefited the royal family, but had an impact on private planning.
Judging from the goods brought back by Zheng He's fleet, most of them were luxury goods such as sappan wood and pepper. These materials could basically only be consumed and played by the upper class, and it was difficult to have direct investment and output.
This is the reason why Liu Daxia, who was still working as a driver during the Xuanzong period, dared to openly question Zheng He's voyages to the West: "Three guarantees, the voyages to the West cost hundreds of thousands of money and food, and thousands of soldiers and civilians died. Even if you get a rare treasure, what will it do to the country?" beneficial?"
Liu Daxia was often criticized in later generations. It is true that he himself was conservative in thinking, but his question was actually not wrong, especially the last sentence: "What is the benefit to the country?" - Your royal family has indeed made a lot of money. But it is the entire country that pays the price unilaterally!
In addition, Zheng He's voyages to the West produced great social impacts. As a large amount of silver and gold flowed into the Ming Dynasty through trade surplus, while solving China's shortage of precious metals since the Tang and Song Dynasties, it also caused the currency to depreciate by nearly 30% during the Yongle period.
At the same time, due to the heavy shipbuilding tasks, a large number of shipbuilding households in the southern shipbuilding areas fled. The number of shipbuilding households in Nanjing even dropped by more than three-quarters, which affected social planning to a certain extent.
This point can be seen by comparing the salary paid by Gao Pragmatic to Jinghua shipbuilding craftsmen, which is much higher than what Zhu Di paid. It can be seen that during the royal expedition to the West, shipbuilding craftsmen and even craftsmen in related industries were actually receiving extreme exploitation. This level of exploitation even reached the point where people would rather risk beheading and flee because they really could not continue working.
Similarly, this is the reason why during the Xuanzong period when the expedition to the West was stopped, the imperial court issued an edict that "all purchases, comprador items, and building materials for ships, wood, plants, and other construction materials should be stopped." That is to say, the imperial court also admitted that this was indeed the case. It has caused great oppression and harm to the people and craftsmen.
In particular, the official overseas trade system of the Ming Dynasty greatly inhibited and affected the opportunities for private maritime merchants and powerful nobles to profit from overseas trade, making them resolutely opposed to Western voyages due to uneven distribution.
The official policy of exclusive overseas trade adopted by Zhu Di at that time was very disrespectful of economic laws. Not only was it inconsistent with the encouragement of private overseas trade during the Song Dynasty, but it was also inconsistent with the "official-owned ship" system of official-private partnership that was criticized by later generations during the Yuan Dynasty. Not as good as.
In any case, is "official ship" better? Or is it a state-monopoly mixed operation system of public-private partnership, in which the government pays for the capital and ships, hires private maritime agents to operate them, and the profits are split 70-70 between the government and private parties, more or less There are still some traces of "market economy" in it.
However, Zhu Di's monopoly management system was tantamount to "eating alone". While making a lot of money for himself, it seriously damaged the interests of the vast number of maritime merchants and powerful nobles who tried to get a share of the pie. Not only did they suffer The firm resistance also caused the spread of "private practices" among the people.
Of course, these social classes whose interests were harmed would not sit still and wait for death, so they used various means to oppose the Western Movement, and thus formed a strong community of interests. As mentioned in the first volume of this book, Xu Jie once commanded his family to directly Participate in maritime private affairs.
At that time, the coastal border defense had reached the sensational stage of "the guards dare not ask questions, the garrison posts cannot stop them, and they have been blinding the public law for hundreds of years." So a lot of tariffs are lost.
It was under this circumstance that Gao Gong felt that instead of doing this, it would be better to announce the liberalization of overseas trade management rights, which is the so-called "listen to maritime trade and levy taxes", which could at least protect tariffs.
It is precisely because of this collusion of interests that even if the emperor repeatedly issued orders to request a sea ban, he could only face the insidious disobedience of the civil servants.
Therefore, Zheng He's voyages to the Western Seas were actually an act to protect the official monopolized maritime foreign trade from being obstructed by other forces. Of course, it would also be strongly opposed by the civil service group and the interest groups behind it.
The third is more direct. In response to the falling commodity prices caused by excess imports, the imperial court resorted to internal dumping, that is, "salary discounts," which aggravated the resentment and disgust of imperial officials towards the Western voyages.
Since the voyages to the West were government-run trade, its planned business model and the inefficiencies brought about by bureaucratic management inevitably led to a dead end of economic laws.
For example, as a large amount of pepper floods the market, pepper prices continue to fall. In just two years, by the fifth year of Yongle reign, the price of domestic pepper in the Ming Dynasty had dropped by 0.1 taels per catty, to half of what it was in the Hongwu reign. As a result, profit margins shrank significantly, the market became saturated, and pepper and sappan wood piled up like mountains in the royal warehouse.
In order to solve the pepper backlog problem and not want to reduce profits, starting from the fifth year of Yongle reign, the Ming court used "rewards" and "salary discounts" to distribute sumac and pepper as bonuses or wages to lower-level officials, and even ?They are upper-level civil and military officials. What's more, during the distribution process, the imperial court refused to sell it to officials and staff at all levels at low prices.
In the 10th year of Yongle, when the market value of pepper was already lower than 0.1 taels/jin, the salary discount was still at the price of 0.2 taels/jin in the Hongwu period. This is too cruel. You must know that the salary of the Ming court was the lowest in history. The practice of discounting pepper and sappan wood is tantamount to further deprivation of wages. Major officials dared to be angry but did not dare to respond, so they all regarded Zheng He's voyages as a way to reduce their salaries.
In this way, under the criticism of many officials, Zheng He's heroic voyage to the West instantly became a "waste of people and money". In the first year of Zhengtong, the cabinet ordered Nanjing garrison eunuch Wang Jinghong to stop purchasing and construction in the name of the young Yingzong. The Western trade in the early Ming Dynasty had just officially come to an end.
It is precisely because of the lessons learned from the past that Gao Jingshi has to recruit a large number of people to engage in sea trade. On the surface, Jinghua’s main “partner” is the Xungui Group, but secretly there are many “shareholdings” held by Gao Jingshi on behalf of him. "Pragmatic school officials have been involved for many years.
According to a highly pragmatic point of view, the more important people involved, not only will the pressure they face in the DPRK be smaller, but also because these people do not run factories or farms, but only purchase goods in their hometowns or within their sphere of influence, they will also It can strongly stimulate local economic development.
Therefore, Gao pragmatically never eats alone in the maritime trade. Not to mention the nobles and officials of the practical school, the nobles, chaebols, and maritime merchants in Jiangnan can also join Jinghua's caravan and sail together (but as mentioned before, Jinghua is A certain percentage of the escort fee will be charged).
What is his purpose for doing this? Naturally, the goal is to allow sea trade to benefit a wider range of people, so that more people can see the benefits of sea trade and be benignly affected by sea trade, thereby stimulating trade and revitalizing the economy.
The emperor wanted to build an inner court trading fleet. Although its scale was certainly limited for the time being, it would pose great risks in the long run.
Just ask: Does the emperor's trading fleet have to pay taxes? If you don't pay taxes, how can other fleets that need to pay customs duties compete with the royal fleet over time? You know, because the profits of sea trade are high, the high and pragmatic customs tax is the highest proportion of direct tax in the entire Ming Dynasty.
So, can the emperor also pay taxes? Theoretically speaking, it is impossible. This is just like the income of Huangzhuang and Huangdian is directly taken over by internal funds and has nothing to do with the Ministry of Household Affairs. If the royal family had a trading fleet, there would definitely be nothing to do with the Ministry of Accounts, and all operating activities and income would be borne by the internal funds themselves.
The above is still under the condition that the emperor does not engage in trade monopoly. If one day the emperor says that a certain product can only be franchised by the royal fleet, it will almost be a replica of the problem caused by the Western Ocean.
Therefore, it is precisely because the imperial power has no limits in theory, so many things have to be guarded against the slightest signs of happening, and if there are any signs, they must be extinguished in time.
In fact, Gao Pragmatic has always believed that imperial power can be very large and powerful, but it must have boundaries. There must be clear and definite boundaries, what matters the imperial power should, can, and must manage, and what matters the imperial power cannot interfere with, interfere with, or even exert influence on.
The so-called disputes between imperial power and prime ministerial power that have been common in China since ancient times, or other disputes between imperial power and ministerial power, are essentially due to the fact that there has never been a set of power boundary rules that both parties recognized and conscientiously abided by.
You also want more power, and I also want more power. Even though everyone knows that both parties benefit from cooperation, in fact, they often end up falling apart... Why bother!
At present, it is too difficult to reform such a method. Gao Pragmatic can only continue to make detours and use his "80,000 hectares of cultivable land" in Nanyang to divert the emperor's attention.
Of course those lands are real, and how to use high pragmatism can also be determined, but the high pragmatic approach itself kills two birds with one stone. Although Jinghua worked very hard to immigrate to southern Xinjiang, he would never mind having His Majesty the Emperor personally come to help.
Nowadays, in the countries in southern Xinjiang on the Indochina Peninsula, because there were some ethnic Chinese in the past, coupled with the continuous immigration and "naturalized household registration" in the past ten or twenty years, the proportion of "Han" in a broad sense has greatly increased. As long as this situation continues to be maintained As long as the situation goes away, there is no need to be pragmatic and think of another solution.
However, in the newly won Nanyang region, which is the so-called Indonesian archipelago region in the original history, the proportion of Chinese and ethnic Chinese here is too low, and it needs to be strengthened quickly. Otherwise, localization will not be carried out and will only become colonial, which is not in line with the high-pragmatic grand strategy.
Colonies are not reliable after all. Whether it is the inevitable rise of nationalism in the future or deliberate interference by external forces, the local situation will be unstable.
Even if Nanyang is very close to Southern Xinjiang, as long as Southern Xinjiang is strong enough, trouble in Nanyang can be suppressed. But how to calculate the cost of governance in the process? Once the cost of governance greatly increases to a certain critical point, it may be like Xuanzong's treatment of Jiaozhi. After much deliberation, it is better to give up.
Gao pragmatic felt that leaving such hidden dangers might not be seen in his own lifetime, but it would be difficult to tell if it was further away. Therefore, it is better to think of more solutions now than to be unable to remedy the situation in the future, and making good use of the emperor's power is a win-win choice.
Zhu Yijun just wants money, and he doesn't care too much about the implementation difficulties of relocating people. What's more, under the current circumstances, disasters are happening one after another within the Ming Dynasty. If you don't move away the refugees who have become proletarians due to disasters, trouble may occur.
After handing this matter over to Liu Ping, Liu Ping hurried back to the capital and has been busy with this for a while.
Of course, his ability to "busy around" shows that Zhu Yijun has agreed to this plan. Again, the emperor's current intention is very simple, he just wants to make money. As long as you can make money, it doesn't matter at all whether the money comes from ocean trade or overseas imperial estates - it doesn't matter where the money comes from, isn't it all money?
This is a big deal, especially for Liu Ping, who is personally responsible for this matter. Liu Ping had actually been looking forward to Gao Pragmatic's early return. He had many detailed issues to discuss with Gao Pragmatic.
After all, the real lord of Nanyang right now is none other than the Marquis of Nanning! Without his approval and help, Liu Ping, the newly appointed "imperial envoy to supervise the eunuchs of Nanyang Imperial Village", could not do anything.
"Master Marquis, you are finally here!" Liu Ping came up to him with a smile on his face, ignoring Dong Yiyuan and Liu Wei who seemed to be guarding Gao Pangshi on the left and right, and said bluntly: "Your Majesty, you are nothing like me today. I planned to go out of the city to welcome you, but I didn’t expect that the Queen would give birth to her legitimate son early in the morning, so I really couldn’t find anything to do... However, the Emperor specifically told our family to wait for you near the General Administration Department, saying that he would invite you as soon as the Marquis arrives. Kunning Palace Face Saint."
Gao pragmatic listened to him with a smile at first, but when he heard the last sentence, he couldn't help being stunned, and hesitated: "It's not appropriate to go to Kunning Palace to meet the Holy Spirit, right? How about I go to the cabinet and wait for the emperor?" Let’s talk about it when we have time?”
"Ah...here, Lord Marquis, you'd better not embarrass me. The emperor's instructions are to ask you to go to Kunning Palace to meet the saint." Liu Ping coughed dryly and added: "Actually, there is nothing inappropriate. Yes, after all, Kunning Palace is full of people inside and outside right now. Not to mention us slaves, the Emperor, Queen Mother, concubines, and several eldest princesses are all in Kunning Palace now."
Gao Pragmatic smiled bitterly and said, "Isn't that even more inappropriate?"
"Hey, you are really serious. It will be suitable if the emperor thinks it is appropriate. Besides, Kunning Palace is so big, the emperor may not want you to meet directly with these many Tianjia girls! It doesn't matter if it's a side hall or a wing. , where can’t it be used to meet you? You say so!”
This is also true. The queen and the emperor are enemies of each other in terms of political attributes (not hostile), so the Kunning Palace where the queen lives and the Qianqing Palace where the emperor lives are basically the same in architectural scale. "Kunning Palace is so big" is no joke, there are indeed enough rooms for the emperor to meet Gao Pragmatic nearby.
In this case, Gao Pragmatic will not be entangled in these ceremonial issues. However, he always cares for his subordinates. Before leaving, he still remembered to ask: "Liu Bingbi, how was the meeting between Dong Zongrong and Liu Zongrong?" arrange?"
Liu Ping unexpectedly discovered that Dong Yiyuan and Liu Wei were there. He suddenly looked at them and said casually: "Oh, these are the two general soldiers who will accompany you back to Beijing to report on their duties. Yes, yes, yes, yes." , they all look majestic..."
After making a few random remarks, Liu Ping continued: "These two princes have no special instructions. We think we should follow the rules. You two will report to the General Affairs Department today, and then leave your addresses in Beijing. We have been waiting at our residence for the past few days. When the emperor has a verbal order, our family will instruct the children to immediately notify the two of you to come to the palace to see the majesty. We will not delay for a moment... Lord Marquis, you always feel that this is terrible good?"
He had been talking to Dong Yiyuan and Liu Wei before, but after finishing the arrangements, he turned back and asked Gao Jingshi, "How about this?" Although it was just a small detail, it made Dong Yiyuan and Liu Wei have a better understanding of Gao Jingshi's status in the emperor's mind. Deep understanding.
It was clearly Liu Ping's performance, but how could it be related to Gao Jingshi's status in the emperor's mind? Because the eunuchs know best who the emperor cares about and who he values.
As one of the chief eunuchs of the Bureau of Ceremony, Liu Ping, if he writes memorials to the emperor in other places, he can call himself "Chen" according to the convention. When such a great eunuch faced Gao Jingjing, he kept saying "You are the master". What weight did Gao Jingjing hold in the emperor's mind? Is there any need to say it?
Gao Jingshi didn't care about the eunuch Bingbi, but Dong Yiyuan and Liu Wei didn't dare. Not to mention the eunuch Bingbi, even the eunuchs guarding a certain place, or even the eunuchs overseeing the army in their army, they could not offend any of them.
Gao Pragmatic didn't reply at this moment, but looked at the two of them, which naturally meant: What do you think?
"Bingbi's arrangement is very reasonable and he takes good care of me and the two of you. The two generals are very grateful... Many thanks to Bingbi." After all, Dong Yiyuan had already worked until he was ready to retire, so he naturally agreed immediately and politely, and because He is more senior and expresses his gratitude on behalf of Liu Wei.
However, Liu Ping still didn't care about their statements. He just saw that Gao was pragmatic and had no objection. He immediately urged with a smile: "Since the two commander-in-chiefs have no other requests, Lord Marquis, let's leave now. We don't dare to keep the Emperor for a long time." Wait, isn’t it?”
Gao pragmatic nodded, but then said to Dong Yiyuan and Liu Wei: "Don't go to other places to stay these days. Just tell the Secretary of General Affairs to live in my house."
This was actually something that had been agreed upon a long time ago, but since Gao Qingshi said so, the two of them didn't know why, so they had to agree again.
However, although they didn't know why Gao Pragmatic brought up old things again at first, they found out right away.
As soon as Liu Ping heard that Gao Jingshi had asked them to live in the Gaofu Mansion, he immediately looked at the two of them again, suddenly remembered something, and said to Liu Wei: "Oh, you are Liu Wei, the commander-in-chief of Sichuan? Haha, our family wants to Come on... Speaking of which, our family will often deal with the Jinghua Secretariat in the future. We were a family five hundred years ago. When we are free one day, we must get closer and closer.
Hey, let’s not change the day. We suddenly remembered that we will be free at noon tomorrow. Liu Zongrong... and Dong Zongrong, I wonder if you two would like to have a meal together? "
Not to mention that the last thing eunuchs care about is their appearance, Liu Ping's attitude changed so quickly that even Dong Yiyuan, who had been in official circles all his life, was amazed not to mention that Liu Wei had never seen it before.
Of course, this is not important, the key is that this is a good thing. The two of them now understand that what Gao Jingshi did just now may have been deliberately creating some kind of opportunity for them. As for what kind of opportunity it is, I'm afraid they won't know until they go to the appointment tomorrow.
The two agreed quickly, and Liu Ping immediately decided on the venue for tomorrow's lunch banquet, and then the two parties said goodbye "reluctantly".
When Liu Ping took Gao Pragmatic to Kunning Palace, the little eunuchs around him were quickly dismissed by Liu Ping and stayed far away from the two of them.
Liu Ping, who had been smiling all the time just now, looked serious, even a little worried, and said hesitantly: "Master Marquis, the Queen has given birth to a legitimate son. I'm afraid there will be some disturbances inside and outside the palace. I wonder where you are always..."
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ps: When I saw so many monthly tickets, I noticed that it was already the end of the month. By the way, this chapter was written yesterday. I also paid off another 2k in debt, and currently I still owe 7k. In the next few days, I will make up the money irregularly and irregularly depending on my time situation.
