Starting from the Chinese New Year in the twelfth year of Wanli, more than 20 prefectures and counties, including Hangzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Suzhou, Sichuan, and Zhangzhou, have successively reported civil unrest. The light reports flashed non-stop, and official roads and stagecoaches came and went, reporting the situation in various places. The center also sent the imperial edicts from the capital to the local areas.
After the first quarter of brewing, the underground fire burning under the soil suddenly burst out from some gaps, causing the ruler of the burning empire to feel a heart-pounding pain!
On the third day of April, a large number of weavers gathered in Zhangzhou Fucheng and attacked the weaving factory, but were suppressed by Zhangzhou Prefecture. Within a few days, a large number of bankrupt raw silk mill owners attacked the silk reeling factory, drawing out the weavers who had previously been suppressed by force, and soon spread to the ironware industry and cotton spinning industry.
Amid the chaos, the Zhangzhou government mishandled the situation, causing local food prices to skyrocket, making the lives of a large number of unemployed craftsmen even more unsustainable. On April 11, the city finally rioted, the prefect fled in panic, and the city was no longer owned by the imperial court. Immediately, the chaos spread to Foshan and Shunde, and gradually spread to the northeast. The Jinyiwei National Security Bureau reported that Suzhou, Hangzhou and Jiaxing also showed signs of instability.
Wang Yupu, the prefect of Zhangzhou, knew that his crime was unforgivable. After settling down his family, he hanged himself and became the first fourth-grade official to die as a result of the "Jiangnan Civil War".
The ten fingers are long and short, and the emperor cannot ask every local official to make no mistakes. Wang Yupu committed suicide, so it is not appropriate to implicate his family. Otherwise, no local official in the world would dare to act and take responsibility.
Zhu Yijun and Zhengshitang held a meeting overnight to study how to deal with the chaos in Jiangnan. This is not the time to review policies. The top priority is to quickly settle this mess and then slowly sort it out.
Because at the end of the eleventh year of Wanli, the National Security Bureau had secretly reported signs of instability in various places south of the Yangtze River, Zhu Yijun urgently issued an order to stop the northward sea-canal transport and adjust grain from north to south to stabilize grain prices in various places south of the Yangtze River. This was also the first time that grain was transported from north to south in the Ming Dynasty. Wu Dui, the governor of Haicao, was stunned when he saw the decree.
There are not many good solutions to the pain caused by industrial production destroying handicrafts in any country or at any historical stage. Especially in feudal society, the organizational and mobilization power at the grassroots level was vastly different from that of New China in later generations. Apart from arranging relief early and asking local officials to guide the unemployed to immigrate to new land to survive, Zhu Yijun had no good solution. means.
Although the steam engine had not yet been invented, the large-scale application of water power and animal power, combined with the high efficiency of new machines, had caused large-scale bankruptcy of Jiangnan craftsmen.
The effect of the new industry on absorbing the population has not yet appeared - due to insufficient money input, the per capita income of the entire South has been limited compared with the past, and the consumer market is not large enough to accommodate the products of the new and old production models. Unsaleable goods such as Shunde acanthus silk have become Common problem.
Zhu Yijun has thought about these issues. But he was somewhat lucky, thinking that as long as people in the world had food to eat, they would not rise up to fight. Moreover, currency reform is no small matter. Zhu Yijun always felt that he could only make a decision after having sufficient precious metal reserves to support it - now the consequences of hesitation have appeared.
At the imperial meeting, Zhang Juzheng led the political hall to sort out the intelligence in the entire Jiangnan area, and then proposed a disposal plan: first, he reported the decree and ordered the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi to mobilize new troops to quell the civil unrest in Zhangzhou, Shunde and other places; Second, all localities immediately began to prepare for repression to prevent the chaos in Zhangzhou Prefecture from spreading and repeating; third, relief grains were distributed immediately. All states and counties showing signs of instability should immediately register the unemployed and issue food subsidies until the crisis is resolved.
The above three measures are temporary solutions and cannot be maintained for a long time. In order to fundamentally solve the chaos in Jiangnan, the political hall was divided into two factions: Wang Guoguang and others believed that currency reform must be promoted immediately, and various relief-for-work projects should be carried out in Jiangnan to absorb the unemployed and promote a sharp increase in people's income; Zhang Siwei and others believe that the imperial court should restrict the issuance of new trading company licenses in the Jiangnan area and reduce the production capacity of new industries so that unemployed people can regain their livelihood.
As the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Zhang Juzheng believed that both factions were justified and the court should take a two-pronged approach. Due to the fierce quarrel, the political hall failed to reach an agreement and petitioned the Holy See.
After Zhu Yijun heard this, he pondered again and again: "What is the situation in Japan, Myanmar, North Korea, Siam, Annan and other places now?"
After hearing this, the ministers in the court wondered where the emperor's pole had gone. Liu Shouyou, director of the Military Intelligence Bureau, accompanied the last person. At this time, he stood up and echoed: "The situation in Myanmar is the best now. Yangon City has been half built, and Governor Luo's headquarters has been moved from Bago to Yangon."
"Japan is still in chaos. Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie have fought many times, with each winning and losing. Many daimyo have been involved, and the two factions are clearly divided. It depends on who can decide the outcome in one battle."
"The Li Dynasty of North Korea is constantly fighting with the party. At the end of last year, Li Ao expelled Song Yinggai, Pu Jinyuan, Xu Feng and other Eastern leaders from the court and fled to the border areas. Now that Westerners are entrenched in the court, I speculate that Li Ao will soon Will make further adjustments.”
"Siam had previously wanted to expand its territory and was warned by the Governor of Burma, but now it has stopped and there is no chaos."
"The Mo Dynasty and Li Dynasty in Annan are constantly attacking. The Mo family has sent envoys to Beijing many times, hoping that the imperial court will make the decision for him. The Governor of Myanmar did not intervene."
The brief report was completed, and everyone in the political hall had already painted a picture of the surrounding situation in their minds. But except for Zhang Juzheng and Wang Guoguang, no one knew what the emperor meant by asking these places first.
The emperor then asked: "What are the industries most affected in Jiangnan today?"
Wang Guoguang said: "Back to the emperor. Silk reeling comes first, cotton spinning comes second, silk comes third, ironmaking comes last, and other industries. Although there will be an impact, there are only a few practitioners, so it is not a cause for concern."
Zhu Yijun knocked on the armrest of the dragon chair and fell into thought. The large conference room of Wenhua Hall fell into silence for a while. Zhang Juzheng looked up from his seat and looked at Zhu Yijun. He knew in his heart that the emperor would not adopt Zhang Siwei's opinion in his decision.
After thinking for a while, Zhu Yijun stretched out his right hand, pointed at Hanlin Yin Yingyuan, who was drafting the imperial edict in the conference room, and said: "Record my will." Yin Yingyuan and Yu Menglin beside him quickly picked up their brushes and prepared to draft the imperial edict.
"Pass my decree to all customs offices. From now on, cotton, iron, silk, and raw silk will be exempted from tax. For all other goods, export tariffs will be increased by one-third."
"Jingshi Bank and Nanjing Bank will open this month. The central bank will issue small-denomination banknotes and Wanli silver coins and copper coins, and gold and silver must be prepared to prevent the backflow of banknotes;"
"Pan Jixun is ordered to urgently allocate 2.5 million taels from the imperial court to speed up the progress of Huanghuai water conservancy construction. The state governments in Jiangnan are ordered to immediately adjust the water conservancy and road construction plans for this year and report to the imperial court by the end of next month. On the basis of the previous The amount of work must be increased by at least one-fifth, but not by more than one-third.”
"I decreed to the Governor of Myanmar to immediately mobilize troops and defeat the Li Dynasty within half a year. The provinces, states, prefectures, and counties south of the Yangtze River organized refugees to immigrate to Myanmar and Annan. If the Mo Dynasty has any evil intentions, even the Li Dynasty will be destroyed. Abort Mo's family together."
"Those who send imperial envoys to Korea and Siam to deliver decrees, and those who bring merchants with imperial toothpastes to do business in the two countries shall not be taxed."
"Wang Shu'an immediately organized an auction of shares in North Korea, Japan, Nanyang, and Western Sea Routes. Those who do not hold more than 1% of the shares will not be issued with trading licenses and are not allowed to trade with other countries. Only gold and silver will be accepted for this auction. "
"Inform Ling Yunyi and send out warships. All Chinese ships to the east and north of Zimanlajia and within the four seas without imperial brand will have their goods confiscated."
"It is decreed that all those who trade with China, such as the governors of Luzon, Manchuria, Srivijaya, and Macao, will have their goods confiscated if they do not have customs clearance stamps. Ling Yunyi wants to close the smuggling hole, and Xiyi wants to make money Money can only buy more tax-free goods!”
"I decree Hai Rui to give him the king's order to patrol the south of the Yangtze River on my behalf. If there are local officials who disregard the people's livelihood and treat the common people harshly - from the fourth rank and below, Hai Rui can directly ask the king to kill them; for those above the fourth rank, Hai Rui Rui Ke can avoid it first, so as not to waste the opportunity."
"I order all newspapers in Beijing and Beijing to immediately do a good job in guiding public opinion and analyze and publicize the items I mentioned.
"Is it decreed that the king of Japan, a small island country, pretends to be the emperor and regards me as a lord who can be bullied?"
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