prosperous age

Chapter 308 Chapter 307
Hearing Wei Guangde mention the commercial interests of the towns along the river and the officials of the river, Chen Yiqin and others on the one side were a little contemptuous before, and those who were not very willing to listen to Wei Guangde's opinions put away their previous thoughts.

Wei Guangde's ability to mention these two points at least shows that he is qualified as an official. He knows that the first thing in officialdom is balance. Only when the interests of all parties are balanced can policy implementation be promoted.

In fact, when Jia Yingchun put forward the idea of ​​"going by sea", most people in Yuwang's Mansion were opposed to it, except Gao Gong, who stood on Jia Yingchun's side and supported him, and Gao Gong's position in Yuwang's Mansion was also detached. So even if other people objected, Yu Wang was still very hesitant.

You know, this first performance after being transferred to the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs is very important. If the emperor's wishes are right, the official career will be smooth, and if the performance is poor, it may not be far from becoming an official.

There were not many memorials for sea transportation in the Ming Dynasty. After the transition from Yongle to river transportation in the middle and late period, ministers in successive dynasties suggested that sea transportation should be restarted to make up for the lack of river transportation capacity, but the results were nothing.

From the bottom of his heart, Wei Guangde supports Jia Yingchun's idea, but here Wei Guangde does not intend to support Jia Yingchun, because this memorial may be counterproductive.

Changing shipping would actually directly shake the Ming Dynasty’s national policy for nearly 200 years. According to Wei Guangde’s understanding of Emperor Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing at this time may not be willing to make such a big change. Now he just wants stability.

Now Emperor Jiajing is over 50 years old, so he is not too old.

The Master said: "When I am ten, I am determined to learn. At thirty, I stand upright. At forty, I am not confused. At fifty, I know the destiny. At sixty, my ears are compliant. At seventy, I follow my heart's desire and do not exceed the rules."

At his age, he should already know the destiny. The current Emperor Jiajing should just want to work harder in the last few years of his life, making the final effort to practice the way of longevity for half a lifetime.

The change of river transportation to sea transportation may have attracted his attention when he proposed it around the tenth year of Jiajing. After all, the Emperor Jiajing was young and vigorous at that time, and he was not lacking in forging ahead. He was at the age when he hoped to make some achievements. Well
Although Wei Guangde was a little moved after hearing Jia Yingchun's thoughts, because he found that the way of shipping could be used as a breakthrough to break the Ming Dynasty's sea ban.

If a large number of grains are transported directly from Jiangnan to Tianjin by Zhaiyang ships in the future, the Ming court’s fear of the sea will be reduced. Those who have repeatedly claimed that "the sea is vast and boundless, the waves are unpredictable, and there are occasional pirates who plunder and wreak havoc, and the opportunity is double." There should be fewer people with opinions.

However, this cannot change too many people at all, because those who really oppose "maritime transportation" are those who consider their commercial interests or other interests. Money is the burden of the bottom people, they only care about their own interests.

In fact, although the current Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is still sailing together, the annual cargo transportation capacity fluctuates up and down, and it is not stable because there is a risk of breaking the sailing.

It is the flood season when there is a lot of water, so sailing is of course risky.

When there is little water, there is drought, and sailing is also very difficult. Even the trackers on both sides of the strait are extremely efficient in traction.

As for the increase of the burden on the people and the squeeze on the Cao army by water transportation, Wei Guangde really didn't take it very seriously.

It's not that Wei Guangde doesn't care about ordinary people when he is an official, but he knows that no matter what era he is in, it is inevitable that the bottom will be oppressed by the top.

Even if Emperor Jiajing agreed to change water transport to sea transport, the upper-level squeezed people would just change from the people along the river to the people along the coast.

The people along the river and the Cao army can enjoy the benefits brought by the suspension of water transportation for a while, but it will never last long. Soon they will find that life is still as miserable as before.

Because the water transport is gone, their income will also drop a lot, and the days when the common people went to work along the river to earn money during the slack are gone forever.

Cao Jun's responsibilities remain the same, but the route they take has changed, but the squeeze will not be less, and because there is no commercial demand in the cities along the river, their income will be less.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty also repeatedly revised the water transportation system, and it was also trying to make it reach a balance that could meet the needs of all parties as much as possible.

For example, allowing Cao ships to carry some commodities in the process of transporting grain is a kind of compensation to Cao Jun, because the imperial court also knew that if they did not give compensation, Cao Jun's transportation would be a loss of money, which would inevitably lead to major changes.

Water boats also have a higher passing rate than merchant ships on the Grand Canal. During dry seasons, the transportation of water boats is superior to merchant ships, so merchants are also willing to use water boats to transport goods, and they can also avoid taxes from the customs.

Wei Guangde sighed in his heart, it is better to give up this opportunity, it seems more certain to wait for the last time of Emperor Jiajing to pass smoothly, and consider the implementation of sea transportation under the rule of the new emperor.

As for the new emperor, you have to make a determined attitude. It is normal to reform some systems. Even if you make mistakes in the end, you can quietly change them back. .

"There are many disadvantages of water transportation, which is well known. From the maintenance and dredging of the canal to the management of passing ships, the people along the river and the tens of thousands of water troops are also miserable.

It's just that I don't know that Da Situ has a detailed plan. As I said earlier, there are countless people who proposed it in the past, but this strategy has not been adopted. Why?
This shows the strength of the opposition forces. If there is no impeccable operation plan, this strategy must not be neglected. "

Wei Guangde continued.

"There is no perfect plan, no matter how complete it is, opponents will always find reasons to attack it."

Jia Yingchun shook his head and sighed, he is not a novice who does not understand the practice, even if it is a good government that benefits the country and the people, there will be those who lose interests, and they will find various reasons to refute you.

What's more, it is hard to say whether it is a good or bad "sea transport" new policy, but the current "river transport" is under great pressure, which has already affected the stability of places along the river. Therefore, Jia Yingchun was on the road from Nanjing to Beijing. Consider this.

Knowing that there would be great resistance, directly raising it rashly would make him a target of those people in the court, so he was not stupid, he didn't raise it directly, but raised it now in Prince Yu's Mansion, depending on the attitude of the princes of Yu Palace.

Sure enough, except for Gao Gong, others were not optimistic about it, and even King Yu shook his head, thinking that it was definitely not feasible.

The person in front of him is a young man whom Gao Gong valued more. According to what Gao Gong said before, this person has excellent vision, extraordinary insight, and can often solve problems in a unique way. Maybe he will choose to support his point of view, but I didn't expect Gao Gong to be pessimistic too. when.

The reasons for other people's objections have actually been raised in the previous generations of emperors, so they don't need to work hard to find reasons for objecting, just come up with the original reasons and refute them.

Originally, he wanted to find an ally to support him, but Wei Guangde chose to oppose it.

"The change of river transportation to sea transportation is actually not wrong in itself. I don't agree with Da Situ's proposal at this time, because he is destined to be abandoned by the present, and it will never be implemented. Even if it is as you said, it is only a small trial. According to the test results, it is impossible for His Majesty to agree to whether to increase or decrease according to the test results."

Wei Guangde didn't want to talk about the so-called reasoning with him, in fact, the previous court had already made it very clear when arguing about this.

The reason for the opposition is also correct, there is no falsification, this policy is beneficial to the court but harmful to the people, and its implementation may cause civil uprisings among the people along the river.

Don't talk about the right and wrong of the policy, just talk about it from the emperor.

It's just that at this time, no matter what era it is, it's a bit taboo to talk about the top bigwigs, not to mention that what Wei Guangde wants to talk about is something he thought of before, but he just hasn't found a chance to do something big.

"The reason why His Majesty disagrees is actually very simple. Maybe you can give it a try 30 years ago."

Since it was a taboo, Wei Guangde had to be more tactful, so as not to fall into the truth and ignore the safety of the dragon body.

The people in the room are not stupid, and they have been paying attention to the body of Xiyuan.

In fact, except for the one from Xiyuan who looked very good, not to mention his three previous princes, the remaining two sons were not in good health.

Don't ask why Prince Yu's mansion also knows King Jing's physical condition, that's really complicated.

Sure enough, after Wei Guangde said this, the others immediately understood Wei Guangde's deep meaning.

"Could it be."

Jia Yingchun said in frustration, but just after he said two words, Wei Guangde waved his hand and interrupted: "I said, I support Da Situ's shipping strategy, but now is not the time."

After saying this, Wei Guangde looked around at the people in the room. They were all officials of Prince Yu's mansion, and they belonged to the people who were tied to the same carriage with King Yu.

"You should understand what I mean. Don't be intimidated by the impeachment of those officials from the previous court. When we have free time, we can still discuss the plan of Da Situ, brainstorm, learn from each other, and try to come up with a practical plan. When the time is ripe, we can try out this strategy according to Da Situ's wishes."

Although Wei Guangde did not fully support his strategy like Gao Gong did, those words just now praised him highly. The strategy is correct, but it is not suitable in reality.

However, Jia Yingchun naturally understood the timing of what Wei Guangde said.

As Wei Guangde said, maybe if he handed in the memorial himself, Emperor Jiajing would directly retain it, or at worst it would reject it.

It was so easy to return to the capital. At this time, Jia Yingchun hadn't realized that despite thousands of people, he still hadn't had the pleasure of being an official.

That being the case, it seems that Wei Guangde's words are very reasonable, continue to improve the plan, and try it when His Royal Highness King Yu ascends the throne.

"Shan Loan's words make sense, I think it's settled, and Da Situ must have figured it out."

Gao Gong nodded to Wei Guangde's statement. He also had concerns in this regard, that is, the emperor didn't want to change when he was old, but he didn't speak out, but wanted to test other people to see if any of them could think of where to go.

It's just a pity that no one mentioned the problem of the emperor's dragon body, no matter whether it was Chen Yiqin who he was optimistic about or others.

Fortunately, this young and outrageous little Chuanlu thought of it.

Really, God Bless King Yu.

They have already ascended to the emperor's dragon body, Jia Yingchun just nodded and couldn't continue talking.

"Come on, drink and drink, hold up the wine glass, let's go together."

At this time, Li Fang and Eunuch Li said cheerfully.

After everyone picked up their wine glasses and drank it down, Eunuch Li smiled and said that the food was cold, and he was about to get up and ask someone to come in to warm it up.

Wei Guangde hurriedly got up and waved his hands to stop Eunuch Li who had already stood up, but he didn't want to replace Eunuch Li to call people in, as others guessed, but he looked around the crowd again, and only said after Eunuch Li sat down again. : "Actually, King Yu and His Royal Highness King Jing are both grown-ups. According to the ancestral system, one of them should be a vassal if he wants to go out."

"Ok?"

"what?"

Wei Guangde inexplicably brought up the taboo that the people of Prince Yu's Mansion are most unwilling to touch. Who doesn't know that this topic is sensitive, but the princes of Prince Yu's Mansion are really not confident now, probably because of the coercion of Yan Song, the chief assistant of the court. Too Sheng.

According to the ancestral system, it should be King Jing who went out to take up the feudal clan, and after the two kings got married, he should have taken the feudal clan, but it was delayed for two years without implementation.

Not to mention the implementation, in the current court, everyone only dares to discuss it in private, and no one dares to make a statement about it.

It's not that everyone doesn't understand, but that in the end, there will be a result that most "loyal" people are least willing to see.

It is well known that His Majesty favors King Jing and alienates King Yu. Even Yan Shifan, who is used to reading Emperor Jiajing's mind, is on good terms with King Jing. Doesn't this explain the problem.

There are many people in the court who support King Yu, but they also have many concerns, so they dare not act rashly.

It's just that at this time today, Wei Guangde brought up the matter of "the vassal king will be the vassal", so Gao Gong and others couldn't help paying attention to it, because this kid just received the secret decree from Emperor Jiajing. Wei Guangde came to mention this matter?
"Why did you say this all of a sudden?"

High arch odd road.

"It's not normal for two adult princes to stay in Beijing all the time. Those who should leave must go, and those who should stay must stay."

Wei Guangde replied.

"We also wanted to bring up this matter when the two kings got married before, but we gave up after analyzing the consequences. Does Shandai think this is an opportunity?"

Yin Shizheng said.

At this time, Jia Yingchun was undoubtedly the one with the highest official position, but he was also the one with the least right to speak.

He had been away from the capital for many years, and it was only in the past six months that he gradually participated in the discussions of the people in the palace, so he was not sure if they had discussed it before.

"I don't want to present the matter now, but to plan. Although I haven't seen the opportunity to go up, but if there is no chance, we can find a way to create opportunities. In the end, we want to squeeze King Jing away."

Wei Guangde said without any scruples at this time, not at all worried that the partition wall has ears or anything.

If outsiders can still hear what they discussed in this private restaurant in King Yu's Mansion, King Yu should choose a fief as soon as possible.

"Go ahead, King Baojing, what if it is rejected?"

Chen Yiqin said: "At the time when the two kings got married, we wanted to unite with other adults in the court who supported King Yu to jointly sign a letter requesting that King Jing be a feudal vassal, but someone came up with such words, and everyone was afraid It's up."

(End of this chapter)