Li Qing frowned and said, "Your Majesty, are you trying to create a monopoly?"
"What is a monopoly?" Zhu Di scratched his head.
"It means...the interests are concentrated in the hands of one person."
Zhu Di nodded and said with a smile: "Yes, that's it. Money must be earned by the emperor and the country. The life of those rich gentry is good enough. No matter how rich they are, they will not do anything for the people, but will further squeeze the people."
Li Qing shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, think twice, doing this... is really inappropriate."
"What's wrong?"
"Blocking people's way of making money is tantamount to killing their parents." Li Qing said, "Monopoly of interests is likely to cause unrest."
Zhu Di seemed to have heard a big joke, "As an emperor, should I still be afraid of mere landlords, rich gentry?"
Li Qing was speechless, but Zhu Di's words made sense. The rich gentry had money, but they were far less wealthy than the country, but...
"Does the Emperor have a plan?"
"There are some." Zhu Di said, "I want to build a large weaving bureau, which will be run and governed by the imperial court; all tea leaves will belong to the imperial court, and like salt, they will be changed to official tea; the scale of mulberry planting and silkworm rearing by wealthy gentry and landlords will be reduced to make way for the imperial court; Porcelain, large official kiln..."
Li Qing swallowed, Zhu Di was no longer blocking people's way of making money.
All the gentry's sources of money were cut off by Zhu Di. Even if they didn't rebel, they would cause big trouble.
Having been in the Ming Dynasty for so long, Li Qing has a full understanding of this era. Emperors are by no means what later generations thought, calling the wind and rain, and doing whatever they want.
Even as an emperor, there are many things that he cannot control and require compromise.
Because the emperor is also a human being, he is just deified.
It is not what later generations think. Once all national policies are promulgated, everyone must work together to implement orders and prohibitions!
Zhu Di was so courageous, but at the same time, he was also too reckless.
Li Qing really felt that something would happen like this, and even if Zhu Di could control it, future kings might not be able to control it.
Lao Zhu banned the sea, which can be said to have blocked the wealthy gentry's way of making money. Lao Si opened the sea, but he did an even better job and directly cut out the flesh of the rich gentry.
But for a while, Li Qing couldn't find the right words to refute Zhu Di.
Because Zhu Di's approach benefited the country and the people.
Li Qingxin said: "That's not right. In history, Zheng He's voyages to the West were not said to cost a huge amount of money. They spent money wantonly and consumed the Ming Dynasty's national power to a great extent. Wasn't it a loss-making business?
But according to what Zhu Di said, he will only make a lot of money and will never lose money! "
Immediately, he thought of Zhu Di's great achievements: opening the canal, compiling the Yongle Grand Ceremony, five expeditions to Mobei, moving the capital to Beijing, six voyages to the West...each one, each one, each one cost a huge amount of money.
It can be said that among the ancient emperors, no one could spend more money than Zhu Di.
But even so, the Ming Dynasty did not collapse, but was hailed as a prosperous age. This makes no sense at all.
The only possibility is that the history books discredited the achievements of the Western voyages and made excuses for banning the sea.
To put it another way, if the voyage to the West was really a loss-making business, then where did Zhu Di get the money to do so many big things?
Twenty-two years of emperor, twenty-two years of annual revenue, excluding necessary infrastructure, relief in times of natural disasters, palaces, royal family expenses, official salaries... the rest will definitely not be able to do so many things.
The taxes in the Ming Dynasty were really not high, with more than 30 million dan in good years and 267 million dan in poor years. After excluding the expenses, the remaining tax was not much.
If Zhu Di really made it difficult for the people to live for the sake of merit, and the people would definitely rebel, how could there be any prosperity?
Furthermore, Li Qing did not believe that Zhu Di would be stupid enough to let Zheng He scatter money all over the world. This was not something a normal person would do.
Isn't this throwing coins?
Even if it were Xiao Zhu, he wouldn't do this!
By the way, who is Zheng He?
Li Qing frowned and thought for a moment, then a man with a handsome face and a smile on his lips appeared in front of him.
At this moment, he finally understood, and his whole person suddenly became enlightened.
Sanbao was an eunuch. Eunuchs had no heirs, so they naturally had no intention of enclosing borders. In addition, he was Zhu Di's confidant, so he was the only candidate to go to the Western Seas.
The voyage to the West was by no means a huge expense and a drain on the Ming Dynasty's national power, but the foundation for supporting Zhu Di's great achievements.
It really makes money, and it makes a lot of money.
It is a pity that Zhu Di's achievements were discredited by history books written by scholars.
It's no wonder that what Lao Si did was really unethical. He just blocked people's way of making money, but also cut out people's flesh.
Lao Zhu is ruthless, and Lao Si is even more ruthless. It is really unlucky for the gentry to be in trouble with these two men.
…
After Zhu Di explained his idea, he asked Li Qing, "What do you think?"
"...Your Majesty!" Li Qing felt that this was inappropriate, but this national policy was indeed beneficial to the country and the people, so he had no reason to object.
"Your Majesty, regarding the Weaving Bureau...?"
Zhu Di frowned and thought for a moment, "I want the eunuch to take charge;
As soon as they came, eunuchs were not accepted by the world. As soon as they were cleansed, they were erased from the family tree. Even if they were greedy, they could not compare to the civil servants who had families and families;
To take a step back, it doesn't matter even if they are extremely greedy. How much can an eunuch spend?
Once caught, he vomited it all out!
Now, if Wenchen takes over, they will grow rapidly. Jianwen has only been here for a few years, and the Ming Dynasty has a shadow of the Song Dynasty. "
Li Qing nodded: "Your Majesty!"
To be honest, he didn't have a good impression of Wen Chen. It wasn't that Wen Chen wasn't a good person, but that this group... was really unlovable.
Everyone thinks that military generals pose a greater threat to the imperial power. In fact, military generals are much easier to manage than civil servants.
The civil servants are different. They are more thoughtful than the military generals. Moreover, the gentry standing behind them have much greater energy than the military generals.
In this era, most of the rich people who were promoted to official positions were because the poor could not afford to study. Moreover, after thousands of years of evolution, the gentry and bureaucrats had long been integrated into one body and could not be separated.
It is not impossible for the poor to get ahead, but it is pitiful.
Zhu Di smiled and said: "Silk is the top priority in maritime trade. I want you to take charge of the weaving."
"Huh?" Li Qing felt a chill in his crotch and waved his hands repeatedly: "Inappropriate, this is inappropriate...!"
"Look, I'm scaring you. I'm not going to castrate you, but let you take care of it first." Zhu Di said with a smile, "When you finish it, I will hand it over to the eunuch Yu."
Li Qing said sarcastically: "I obey the order."
Zhu Di stretched and sighed: "I have too many things to do. I don't know which one to do first. The Weaving Bureau's affairs are urgent, so you can do another thing for me first."
"..." Li Qing suddenly felt that Lao Si looked exactly like Lao Zhu, making him look like a human being.
This hasn't even started yet, and he's been given some work to do.
You didn’t even mention the salary increase... Li Qing touched his nose and said, "Your Majesty, please tell me."
"Form the Jin Yiwei." Zhu Di said with a smile, "The Jin Yiwei is very effective in suppressing civil servants and even military generals. How can I abandon them?"
Li Qing nodded slightly and said doubtfully, "Your Majesty, it's actually not difficult to form the Imperial Guard. I'm not needed at all."
"Of course I know." Zhu Di looked like he was heartbroken, "I just asked you to get on the line with Jin Yiwei. I have good intentions, why don't you understand?"
Li Qing was stunned and then smiled bitterly.
Sure enough, what Zhu Di said next confirmed his suspicion.
"I have thought about it and decided not to give you an official position. You are doing well as you are now." Zhu Di patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, I will protect you."
Lao Si, like Lao Zhu, wanted him to be a lonely minister.
In fact, Lao Zhu finally asked him to be a powerful minister because he was no longer good. If he was in better health, he would never let him be a powerful minister.
However, before his path to becoming a powerful minister had begun, three troublemakers had taken the lead.
Li Qing slandered: He is indeed Lao Zhu's son. This behavior is exactly the same.
However, he doesn't care about this. He has been a lonely minister for so many years and is already used to it.
Li Qing even thought that maybe when future generations look at Ming history, he will probably be seen as a villain.
The two of them made simple plans for opening the sea, changing the household registration system and other matters. Seeing that it was almost evening, Li Qing stood up and resigned.
"Wait a minute." Zhu Di stopped Li Qing who was about to leave, "How is that Tie Xuan?"
"Well..." Li Qingqian smiled and said, "Tie Xuan is more stubborn. I'll think of a solution later."
Zhu Di frowned, "No, he doesn't want to surrender, and there's no point in trying to persuade him, so just keep him locked up. I want him to take a good look at it, and see who is stronger or weaker between me and Jianwen!"
"Your Majesty is so open-minded, and I admire you so much." Li Qing flattered him.
At the same time, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, not even killing Tie Xuan, which shows that Zhu Di is not planning to deal with Jianwen's related personnel strictly, but intends to prove himself with facts.
"I excuse myself."
…
Zhu Di really thought so, he wanted to convince everyone.
However, people related to Jianwen can be let go, but Jianwen himself cannot be let go.
The eldest nephew could not see anyone alive or dead, which made him unable to sleep or eat well.
Zhu Di thought hard and finally thought of a reasonably feasible method, and said loudly: "Come here, call Hu Hui."
As soon as Xiao Huangmen entered the palace, he bowed quickly after hearing the holy words and hurried away.
Two quarters of an hour later, Hu Hui arrived.
"Please see..."
"Without courtesy, sit down." Zhu Di was very gentle.
Hu Yan swallowed and sat down carefully, "What are your orders, Your Majesty?"
"I have something I want you to do. Once you're done, you'll be promoted to a higher position." Zhu Di tapped the imperial case with his index finger, "I'll give you a team of people to go find the immortal Zhang Slutty."
"minister……"
"I haven't finished speaking yet." Zhu Di continued, "Xunxian is just a cover, your real mission is to find Jianwen..."
…
