After all, Zhu Houzhao is the emperor. No matter how strong the resistance is and how many people oppose it, as long as he implements it with a resolute attitude, at least this matter will not get out of the capital.
But that slap also shocked the nobles and important ministers of the court.
The Zhu Ming royal family has always been one with the nobles, and now even Marquis Wu Ding has ended up like this, let alone the others.
There was no so-called real resistance force in front of the imperial power, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties. You are making trouble like all the Zhengde emperors in history. What can the minister do?
Although the abnormal political and moral environment of the Ming Dynasty made many things rigid, it actually maintained the imperial power to a certain extent, because everyone had to fight for the word "loyalty". In addition, the previous dynasties had taught too many lessons, and powerful officials , relatives, vassal kings... If any of these people make any changes, those who are seeking fame will use you to increase your presence in front of the emperor.
Moreover, Zhu Houzhao himself was an emperor with real power. Stabilizing the capital will naturally not be a big problem, even if the commotion is very serious.
There were even those who gave serious advice, such as the Censor of Shandong Province, the Censor of Henan Province... plus the officials of the Department of Science and Technology in Beijing, they had basically evolved to the point of scolding the emperor.
As the cabinet, Li Dongyang and Xie Qian had to vote, and they were frightened after seeing many memorials.
But these memorials hardly caused any disturbance when they entered the Qianqing Palace.
Scholars rebelled, but it took three years to succeed. If the previous memorial is really useful, then the emperors of all dynasties will be wise kings.
So the real test actually lies in the local area.
Wu Dinghou felt that he had seen the coffin, so he began to cry. There are still many people in the world who cannot see a coffin. The mountains are high and the emperor is far away. In fact, our nation may say we are good or we say we are unruly, but some people are also unruly.
How can a prince, a general, and a good man have such a good reputation? Eighteen years later, he will become a good man, and a scholar can be killed and cannot be humiliated... Anyway, there are many such words that inspire people to work hard, and from nobles to commoners, there is always one suitable for you.
What makes things even more complicated, and what Zhu Houzhao cannot plan in advance, is credibility.
To put it simply, opening up the sea is indeed beneficial to some people, at least they don't have to dig in the soil to eat, but the court and the government have no credibility.
No matter how beautifully you say it, most people in society don't believe it, and most people are illiterate. The benefits in a year's time are not as good as treating him to a roast chicken now.
This is an ignorant person,
There are also some purely bad people who are profiting from this smuggling chain. Ordinary people are probably afraid of them, right?
Going to sea and smuggling, this is a paradise for adventurers and desperadoes.
This is the case with the Poyang Zhan family that Mao Yuwen found in Jiangxi. Zhan can already be said to be a gentry because his family has officials and is also engaged in business. If it weren't for opening up the sea, just catching Zhan wouldn't be a big problem, but things had changed in nature at this point, and other gentry involved in smuggling began to group together driven by instinct.
Jin Yiwei encountered difficulties in such an arrest.
The prefect of Raozhou Prefecture is a middle-aged man named Wang Sheng. Even though the Jin Yiwei was fighting with open fire, he still dared to stop him in front of the door with just one word.
"Bring me the imperial edict!"
No matter how good Mao Yuwen was, he couldn't just kill the prefect, so it was really a headache.
Wang Sheng seems to have enough confidence, "Communicating with foreign countries and smuggling prohibited goods are just Deputy Commander Mao's words. I want an imperial edict, but Deputy Commander Mao doesn't have it. I want evidence, but Deputy Commander Mao doesn't have it either. That's it." Want to arrest hundreds of people in Poyang County?!"
Poyang has the King of Huai, and these people have quite a few cards.
Mao's language was difficult to implement, "Wang Zhifu, it is good that you are a fourth-rank official of the imperial court. But I am also the deputy envoy of the Jinyiwei, and I can also see the emperor. The Wangzhifu blocked the Jinyiwei's operation today. When Zhejiang and Fujian really capture the real evidence of Zhan's smuggling, you There’s no way we can get rid of it!”
"Deputy Ambassador Mao, you should take care of yourself first. You don't need to worry about my life!"
Mao Yuwen was angry but helpless.
Sometimes he cannot report everything to the emperor or ask for imperial edicts. To be honest, I don’t know how many officials in the Ming Dynasty wanted to ask for an imperial edict. If everyone could ask for it, the country would have been in chaos.
The situation in Jiangxi is not good.
Zhejiang is okay.
The main reason is that there is a Mei Kejia here. After the Ningbo Shipping Department was established, Mei Ji first cooperated with the government. It seems that no lives were lost in handing in documents and obtaining seals.
Furthermore, Wang Qiong is not a pure official. To be honest, his hands and feet are still a little dirty. There are two sides to the matter. In this way, some wealthy households in Hangzhou would actually believe some of the things he said.
"Your Majesty has already stated in the imperial edict that after the Ming Dynasty, private trade will be changed to official trade. In other words, the court allows everyone to do maritime business, but you must follow the rules. As for you, you no longer have to worry about being investigated by the court. , the imperial court also collected some commercial taxes from it.”
“Isn’t that just spending money to eliminate disasters?”
Many of the businessmen in the house were saved by Mei Kejia, and today is a meeting between officials and businessmen.
Wang Qiong took a sip from the tea cup and said, "Although he speaks rudely, he is not rude. But Shopkeeper Wang will say less rude words in the future. In the past, everyone did it to lose their heads, but now the court has changed this law, and everyone is happy, right?"
"Zhongcheng. We don't care about this matter." This is a slightly younger businessman, in his thirties, with only a beard on his lips. "It's just that after the imperial court opened the Shipping Department, it started to do maritime business." There will be more and more people, so everyone's profit will be less and less. In this way, from the magistrate's yamen to the magistrate's yamen, and then to the clan elders and ministers of the Chaozhong Pavilion, each layer will take less. This That’s the most difficult thing to do.”
Mei Kejia also drank tea calmly.
The biggest problem in Zhejiang is indeed this.
Of course, the merchant families that can be found on the surface can be brought to the Shibo Department, and they still have to give the governor's face.
But what about the businessmen behind the scenes?
The imperial court said that private trade should be changed to official trade. Of course you can say that.
But how many people will really listen? He will still be smuggling. What will you do?
Grasp? Some people’s backgrounds are also quite large.
For example, take the Xie family in Yuyao, Ningbo. The emperor had warned Xie Qian, but he actually asked local officials to arrest Xie Ge's family. To be honest, it is really hard to imagine.
"That's the business of the Prime Minister. Shopkeeper Liu doesn't have to worry about it. In short, in Hangzhou, you guys can do business in accordance with the laws of the imperial court, or just follow Brother Mei and do what he does."
"Zhongcheng." Mei Kejia said, "Sometimes things in business are not that simple. When you eat this meal, you come into contact with many people, and you can't offend any of them. The business in the hands of all the shopkeepers is also affected by various kinds of things. It is natural to cooperate with the government under the restrictions of the government, but if you offend the local clan too much, you may not even receive silk in the future. If the Shibo Division is just an empty shell with not much trade volume, this is probably not what the Holy Emperor wants to see. Arrived."
Even Mei Kejia himself is facing this situation.
Wang Qiong understood that in a simple sentence, if he did not arrest one or two of his families, it would have no effect at all.
Some people took the court's words as fart, and smuggled as they did in the past, and they will still smuggle in the future, and even joined forces to exclude those who were not the same as themselves, as Mei Kejia said.
Fortunately, Wang Qiong had asked the Governor's Office for instructions on this point.
If that's the case, let's investigate and arrest people.
On the second day,
Zhejiang took action.
And in Fujian,
There are many conflicts in the officialdom itself.
When the inspector Zhang Li investigated the smuggling of eucalyptus in Quanzhou Prefecture, he found nothing. He was even attacked by bandits on the way from Fuzhou to Quanzhou!
This made many officials in the Governor's Office very worried.
"Inspecting smuggling and setting up a shipping market are two sides of the same coin. Without a strict ban on smuggling, who would do business through the shipping department?" Zhang Li, the inspector, had a stone slab on his arm. He himself was not in danger, but he fell from his horse and his arm Somewhat twisted.
"boom!"
The commander of the capital, Yu Zichu, also became angry, "The imperial edict has arrived. If we can't accomplish this, we will be dead if we can't deliver. In this case, why not raise an army to attack, it's just a bunch of bandits, why are you afraid that they won't succeed?!"
"Commander, please be patient. Fujian is mountainous and the people are poor. Bandits are everywhere. Now that the guard is in ruins, it's okay to rely on officers and soldiers to chase down one or two places. If we really want to find bandits all over the mountains, How long will it take to find it? But, Budang, this matter cannot be revealed. These gangsters may be related to the smuggling businessmen. They cooperate with each other and the government can’t find anything. If they can’t find out, then Kaihai The order just beat the gongs and drums but made no move. Those who were smuggling are still smuggling."
As time goes by, everyone feels that you can't do this, so they become even more unscrupulous.
Of course Wang Hao understands the key to this, "The same is true in Zhejiang. Although some companies should still comply with the national policy because of Meiji, most people remain silent and secretly resist, which is the same as the open resistance here in Fujian." It’s tricky. Opening the sea is really not easy.”
It now seems that large-scale rebellions will not lead to high-intensity counter-insurgency wars. However, local governments remain unmoved and engage in low-intensity unrest that is likely to continue.
"Boan, what do you think?"
Wang Shouren had returned to the governor's office to participate in politics. When he heard the governor's inquiry, he replied: "The mountain bandits must be suppressed. If they are not suppressed, the power of the imperial court will not be established. Smuggling needs to be investigated, but just now the ministry mentioned Mei Ji... The official fell. I have an idea, we need to change the investigation method. In the final analysis, the purpose of the court is not to arrest them all like the Jinyiwei investigation, but to force them to do business through the Shipping Department. "
"Go on."
"The official thinks that if they harass us continuously, we can also harass them continuously. But there is only one kind of person that we will not harass."
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Wang Hao and Feng Xi looked astonished, "Businessmen who have obtained official seals through the Shipping Department."
"Yes, we don't have to doubt His Majesty's determination. This matter is not about speed, but about effectiveness. So it doesn't matter if it takes a little longer. From today on, the government will accept reports and attack everywhere. If there is nothing, we will come to check every now and then. Who in business doesn’t want peace and stability? Over time, most people will become tired and tired, and they will return to the right path guided by the government. The remaining stubborn ones should have special reasons, among which Some of them even require His Majesty to make a decision, and then we can decide."
Wang Hao thought about it for a while and felt that it was effective. He immediately ordered his surroundings, "Pass this method to Zhejiang and ask them to refer to it as appropriate."
Wang Shouren got this key right.
The imperial court did not want to put so many people to death.
Over there, Yu Zichu asked again, because he found that this man named Wang Shouren indeed had a strange plan, "Wang Shenzheng just said that the bandits must be suppressed, but he didn't know how to suppress them?"
Wang Shouren began to ask Zhang Li, "The inspector is a third-rank official. Looking at Fujian, there are not many people with higher official positions than you. But why was he ambushed by bandits for the first time when he went out? What does it mean?"
After all, Yu Zichu had led the army. He responded faster than Zhang Li, a civil servant, "There is a spy!"
"That's right." Wang Shouren smiled, "The suppression of bandits begins with catching spies."
In the room, Feng Xi and Zhang Li all began to look at Wang Shouren with admiration. At first, they thought he was someone who relied on his father, but they didn't expect him to be quite a person.
===
I recommend a friend's book, "The Ming Prince: The Strongest Mastermind".
