prosperous age

In the afternoon, Wei Guangde came out of the cabinet, got on a sedan chair outside the imperial city gate and returned home.

But the moment he entered the sedan, he suddenly waved to the entourage beside him, and the man immediately bent over.

After Wei Guangde got into the sedan, he opened the curtain and said, "Go to Duke Ding's house right away, and tell me I will visit you later."

"Yes, sir."

Chang Sui got the order and immediately agreed.

"Go ahead."

Wei Guangde lowered the sedan curtain and said at the same time.

After the man left quickly, the eight sedan bearers worked together amidst the shouts from the sedan head, and the sedan was lifted smoothly, and then headed towards Wei Mansion.

Although the visit was a little hasty, we couldn't wait until we were leaving to inform the host.

Again, in this era, when you go to visit, you will post a message in advance. Even relatives have to send someone to notify you first.

If you don't inform me in advance, the master has other arrangements, or is not at the house at all, there is nothing you can do.

Even in the future life, if you go to someone else's house, you should make a phone call before going out, so that others can make arrangements in advance.

If you send surprises directly to your door, the surprise will be a surprise, but it will affect other people's lives to some extent.

Wei Guangde changed into casual clothes after dinner at home, asked Zhang Ji to order someone to prepare the sedan, and then went out to Duke Dingguo's mansion.

As a veteran nobleman, Duke Dingguo's mansion is located on Dingfu Street in Xicheng City. The street is named after this mansion.

The street is not long, less than 500 meters, but it seems that apart from the Duke's Mansion, there are no other houses on this street. Most of the surrounding properties belong to the Duke Ding's Mansion.

Although the main family does not need so many houses, there are so many people in the house, and the relatives of these people also need a huge land to accommodate them.

Duke Dingguo's Mansion was the place designated and built by Zhu Di when he moved the capital. Although it had gone through a hundred years of ups and downs, as long as Duke Dingguo was still the top noble of the Ming Dynasty, the daily maintenance and repairs of the mansion were naturally in place.

At least, Wei Guangde couldn't see any traces of the erosion of time.

After all, it is the top noble residence in the capital, so the street in front of the door is much smoother and wider than the surrounding streets, and the buildings on both sides are also very impressive.

As for the interior of the Duke's Mansion, it was not exactly magnificent, but the row upon row of buildings and carved beams and painted pillars made Wei Guangde envious.

The land here is much larger than that of his several-expanded mansion.

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, the inner city was occupied by the Eight Banners, and this area belonged to the territory of the Zhenghuang Banner.

The "Comprehensive Map of the Capital" during the Qianlong period marked this place as Dingfu Lou Street, because there are still architectural remains of the original Dingguo Gongfu.

In the late Qing Dynasty, it was changed back to Dingfu Street. In the Republic of China, it was changed to Dingfu Street because of its homophonic pronunciation. In 1965, it was renamed Dingfu Street again.

During the Qing Dynasty, because this area was not far from the imperial city and adjacent to Shichahai, a geomantic treasure land, although the Duke's Palace disappeared, higher-level palaces began to gather together, such as Prince Gong's Palace, Prince Chun's Palace, and Prince Yujun's Palace (today's Tao Palace). Baylor House) etc.

Of course Wei Guangde didn't know what this street would be called in later generations, but the location was really good.

Only a group of people who followed Zhu Di were qualified to get territory in such a place, and others would not envy them.

When Wei Guangde entered the second gate, Xu Wenbi had already come out to greet him. Because Xu Jianglan was not in the capital when he went south, Wei Guangde just followed Xu Wenbi to the backyard to visit the elders of the mansion, and then he and Xu Wenbi went to the front to find a flower hall, make tea and chat.

"Shandai, you don't go to the Three Treasures Hall for anything. Why did you come here today?"

Xu Wenbi asked with a smile.

"We are all relatives, so we should come here often, but recently we have been busy with official duties."

"Stop it, stop it, if we really want to connect with each other, you won't come directly to my house. I originally asked someone out tonight, but when I heard you were coming, I turned down the invitation."

When Wei Guangde was in the capital, of course he would not interact with people like Xu Wenbi, but most of them would not visit each other, but would go out to meet up to drink and listen to music.

Visiting the house is a pastime for the women in the house.

"By the way, you came to me, isn't it because of the matter in Datong?"

After joking for a while, Xu Wenbi asked.

"I can't hide anything from you, brother. I am really here for my colleagues."

Wei Guangde replied.

"Let me just say that one of the most heated discussions between the DPRK and China recently is Hai Rui's resignation, and the second is Datong. Although there are not many people talking about it publicly, there are still many people talking about it privately."

Xu Wenbi let Wei Guangde off the hook as soon as he opened his mouth. He obviously didn't regard Wei Guangde as an outsider, and he needed to be secretive about what he said and did.

"Oh, so the princes and princes are also very concerned about this matter?"

Wei Guangde asked immediately.

"That's natural. The cabinet isn't planning to make peace with the Tatars, as the rumors say, right?"

Xu Wenbi asked bluntly.

"It's not about making peace, it's just about profiting from it."

Wei Guangde smiled and then continued: "I think my eldest brother should know about the memorial of Wang Chonggu, the governor of Xuanda. It is not a secret in the court."

Xu Wenbi nodded immediately. In their opinion, the so-called three strategies were just that, and the probability of success was extremely low.

Are you kidding me? Just two months ago, the Tatars raided Liaodong, and half a year ago they were attacking Datong. Such a relationship can only be ended by making peace.

"Brother dissatisfied, the cabinet and His Majesty are determined to promote this matter."

Wei Guangde spoke.

"what?"

The news about Wei Guangde shocked Xu Wenbi quite a bit. As mentioned before, the two sides are still at war, but the big shots in the court are thinking about peace talks. Can you not be shocked?

"Gao Xinzheng also supports negotiating peace with the Tatars?"

Xu Wenbi asked immediately.

Gao Gong has always felt strong to the outside world. If he tried hard to restrain himself when he first returned to the court, he was not too conspicuous. However, as his foundation was firmly established, his habitual personality gradually returned to his original appearance.

"Actually, it's not a peace negotiation. Both sides have conditions. Only when the conditions are met can a peace negotiation be possible."

Wei Guangde opened his mouth to explain.

"Your cabinet issued a secret order to Datong? Your Majesty also agreed?"

Wang Chonggu's memorial was not kept secret, but the cabinet's letter to Datong was kept secret. Moreover, the conversation between the cabinet and His Majesty that day was kept silent. Only the emperor and cabinet ministers were present, and they were the only people who knew about it, so the cabinet's attitude was not spread. go out.

Most of the courtiers thought that the cabinet might still be considering it, so they didn't hear anything further.

But based on Wei Guangde's tone, Xu Wenbi had already guessed that the cabinet seemed to have set the tone, otherwise Wei Guangde would not have said it was the cabinet and His Majesty's intention. Despite this, Xu Wenbi still asked in disbelief.

"His Majesty did not expressly agree, but let us do it."

Wei Guangde looked up at Xu Wenbi and said seriously.

He now wants to use the emperor's order to influence Xu Wenbi, so that he can put aside his noble thoughts and choose to support the cabinet's decision-making.

"I can't control the civil service, but I believe there won't be many people who support it."

Xu Wenbi hinted.

"That's why I need my eldest brother to try his best to help me convince those people. Every one of them can be persuaded.

As for officials, other members of our cabinet will also summon many people in succession during this period to do similar things. "

Wei Guangde spoke.

In fact, this afternoon, the cabinet had received news that some people from the Hanlin Academy, the Sixth Section and the Metropolitan Procuratorate were already discussing Wang Chonggu's memorial.

If Hai Rui was still in Nanjing, perhaps everyone's attention would still be focused on him, but now he is gone.

Now that he's gone, there's naturally nothing to discuss.

It's just Hai Rui, and it's not worth continuing to discuss whether we should issue an order to recover it.

Hai Rui's reputation was so great that it put pressure on everyone else.

With one gone, there is one less political competitor, which is actually a good thing, not to mention he is just a civil servant.

However, in this case, the things that the cabinet wants to hide can no longer be hidden, and it becomes a top priority to seize the time to contact officials to unify their attitude.

In fact, not only Wei Guangde went to visit Duke Dingguo tonight, but several other ministers also summoned a group of subordinates at home to discuss matters.

Perhaps it can be said that Xu Wenbi was definitely not the only one who was shocked tonight, there were also many officials who were as surprised as Xu Wenbi at this moment.

"Shaloan. Supposedly, it is a good thing for the people to stop the army twice, but you should be able to guess a lot of these things. This is not in the interest of most people."

Xu Wenbi said leisurely.

It was in a hostile relationship with the Mongols, and wars broke out frequently. The simplest thing was that those noble sons in the capital had a good place to go after being gilded.

Staying at the border for two years, whether true or false, you can be promoted with some military exploits, and then return to the capital camp to serve as a general. This is already an established rule in the circle of nobles, and everyone does this.

If this is not done, how will young people get credit in the future and how will they be promoted to official positions quickly?

This is not to mention the large amount of military pay allocated by the capital, and how much benefits everyone from civil servants to noble generals can derive from it.

As long as there is no war, the Ming Dynasty's fiscal expenditure on the Ministry of War will be greatly reduced, and the border towns will be ordered to resume farming. Xu Wenbi did not dare to think about it anymore. Xu Wenbi knew how many people this would involve.

Cabinet ministers are indeed very powerful and can influence the careers of many people, but this decision will really cut off many people's financial paths.

"Isn't it just silver?"

Wei Guangde pretended to be indifferent and smiled, "With your power, if you don't take the money, won't there be other places to make money?"

"Ok?"

Xu Wenbi did not think about whether this matter could be done for the time being, but was concerned about Wei Guangde's method of making money.

"Shandai, do you mean that even if peace is negotiated, there will still be money to be made?"

Since Xu Wenbi was interested, he immediately asked.

No matter whether the negotiation between the court and the Mongols is successful or not, it is always good to have another way to make a fortune. Even if it has to be negotiated twice, it can be done.

Perhaps Wei Guangde mistakenly thought that these ideas could not be implemented because he was not familiar with the situation in the border town. But who is he? These nobles still have some influence on the border town. Although it is not as good as those of the generals, these generals also rely on them. Only the nobles can survive.

Wei Guangde looked at Xu Wenbi and smiled and said: "The two sides have negotiated. In addition to paying tribute, there will also be mutual trade. There are so many cattle and horses on the grassland. If you get it back, you will get a lot of money. Although you cannot get rich overnight, you can make a steady stream of money."

Wei Guangde knows what these nobles like, and what they want is a way to continue to make money.

Although it is tempting to become fat all at once, it is not that attractive to these nobles.

"Although some people are engaged in trade now, the scale is relatively large. If there is a mutual trade, all your businesses can be moved there, and that will bring in a lot of money every year."

During this period, although some merchants from Shanxi and Shanxi also engaged in smuggling and bribed border generals to smuggle goods to the grasslands, they were done secretly and on a very small scale. It was far from the late Ming Dynasty when they almost blatantly formed groups to go on the trade route from the grasslands to Shenyang. To make a name for himself among the eight great families.

However, once the market is mutual, even if the court will restrict the scale of the transaction, such as the types of commodities and the trading volume of salt, iron and tea, these people have many ways to bypass the court's supervision and make enough money.

Some people may worry about whether such unrestricted transaction volume will contribute to the rise of the Mongols again, but at least Wei Guangde will not worry.

The era of the Mongols has passed, and now the thermal weapon technology is not mature enough. If we wait another hundred years, facing the increasingly mature muskets and artillery, the advantages of the steppe cavalry will be greatly reduced. The world has changed.

Wei Guangde is also considered a novice in firearms. He only knows the general trend, but does not know the specific details.

It is a trend for hot weapons to replace cold weapons. Due to the speed of technological development, cavalry and cold weapons will actually still play an important role on the battlefield in the next few hundred years, but the decline in status cannot be changed.

Hot weapons replaced cold weapons, and the demise of cavalry was more due to the emergence of machine guns, tanks and other weapons 200 years later.

Even during World War II, both sides of the war still had a considerable number of cavalry units participating in the battle.

However, Wei Guangde did not realize this. He just asked the Ministry of Industry to study more forging technology and design more powerful firearms.

Because of these actions, he is not worried about the rise of grassland forces again.

After all, there is only a small population there, and it may not take hundreds of years to return to the so-called Genghis Khan period.

The Ming Dynasty made peace with Anda Khan, but it does not mean that it cannot also support other tribes on the grassland. Using barbarians to control barbarians has always been the strategy formulated by the Ming Dynasty cabinet to deal with the northern peoples.

It is the national policy of the Ming Dynasty to let them fight each other for living space and be weakened together.

The knowledge of later generations was the foundation for Wei Guangde to settle down in the Ming Dynasty.

In order to stabilize the grassland and get the nobles to support the cabinet's opinions, Wei Guangde thought about a lot of things this afternoon and was naturally well prepared.

Later Chinese people have heard the story of "sheep eating people" and know that it was the British aristocratic landowners who raised a large number of sheep because of the sudden prosperity of the woolen textile industry, and farmers were displaced in large numbers. However, in China, the news about the woolen textile industry was... It is so rare that it seems as if the woolen textile industry did not exist in the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Wei Guangde had subconsciously thought like this before, but after arriving in the capital for so many years, he had also seen countless so-called "top luxuries" in the Ming Dynasty, and among them, the velvet brown clothes for winter given by businessmen aroused his interest.

Yes, this thing is produced in Lanzhou and is also called Lan Rong. It is actually a domestic wool textile.

It's just that there wasn't much wool in the Ming Dynasty, and the production was cumbersome, so the output was extremely low.

Of course, this also leads to extremely high prices for blue velvet.

Everything is lacking on the grassland, but the most indispensable thing is wool. (End of chapter)