I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 630 State Affairs
"What's wrong with the two pavilion elders?" Zhu Yijiong asked.

Ye Gui, the imperial doctor, replied: "Mr. Liang Ge is weak and suffers from typhoid caused by wind and cold. He can just prescribe a few medicines and take it. As for Mr. Wang Ge, his illness is not serious, just some paralysis caused by wind, cold and dampness."

Zhu Yijiong thought about it: "Wind, cold and dampness evil? Rheumatism?"

Ye Gui nodded: "You can say that. Moreover, you two are already old. Although this disease is not serious, you will easily get sick every autumn and winter due to typhoid fever. It is not easy to cure. You can only practice meditation and cultivate yourself, which may relieve the pain. .”

Zhu Yijiong understood that rheumatism was difficult to cure, let alone in this era, even in later generations of medicine, and the pain could only be relieved through medication.

Zhu Yijiong said: "Thank you, Ye Qing, for making a special trip."

"Don't dare."

Ye Gui resigned and rode a carriage outside the palace gate, protected by the imperial guards, and returned to the Taiyuan Hospital.

Although the Imperial Medical College of the Ming Dynasty was still affiliated with the royal family, it was integrated into the Academy of Sciences. Its full name can also be said to be the Imperial Medical College.

The duties of the Imperial Physician at the Imperial Hospital were no longer limited to treating the emperor. He was also responsible for using the new equipment provided by the imperial court to study medicine and pharmacology.

Under the emperor's "inspiration", the optical microscope developed and polished by the Academy of Sciences has already been mass-produced and popularized in Taiyuan Hospital. Relying on these optical microscopes, which were made without any expense, the imperial doctors of the Taiyuan Hospital seemed to have opened the door to a new world. It turned out that besides the subjective world, there was another microscopic world invisible to the naked eye.

The discovery of the microscopic world alone is enough to start a revolution in traditional Chinese medicine.

Although the magnification of today's optical microscopes is too low and only parasites can be seen, and even smaller bacteria are difficult to detect, let alone the feared smallpox virus, this is already quite good.

After several years of publicity by Daming Monthly News, it has become popular in most areas of the country, including the southwest prefectures and counties of Sichuan. Both officials and civilians have basically developed the habit of boiling water for drinking.

Unless there is really no condition and it is a last resort, you will drink a small amount of unboiled water.

Nowadays, in Kunshan County, after the flood season, the incidence of potbelly disease has been significantly reduced. Because the imperial court told the people through newspapers that potbelly disease was schistosomiasis, and the schistosomiasis came from oncomelania.

As long as you eat snails, you will definitely get sick. Even if you can cure it, it will cost a lot of money.

Regardless of whether such a threat is true or not, people will no longer eat snails for the sake of the silver and copper coins in their pockets. Even the Kunshan County Yamen organized people to hunt and kill snails with great fanfare. After collecting the snails, they burned them with fire and even fed them to chickens.

Zhu Yijiong recovered her thoughts and placed two memorials on the imperial desk, namely the resignation memorials submitted by Wang Li and Liang Wenxuan.

After thinking about it for a while, he wrote and wrote: "No."

The refusal is false. These two took the initiative to resign due to illness, so that they could make way for young people.

But unlike Lu Youlong, as a veteran who has made no mistakes, the process of three invitations and three resignations still has to be followed.

Even if Lu Youlong resigned from office after his son made a mistake before, after his death, Emperor Zhu still gave him the posthumous title of "Wen Xiang" and granted him a bunch of honorary titles.

This is not a matter of setting aside past grudges, but a political necessity.

Otherwise, the court will easily become unpopular, and the people will think that the emperor is too mean and ungrateful.

After refuting the resignation memorials of Wang Li and Liang Wenxuan, Zhu Yijiong immediately began to draft decrees to promote them to positions and titles.

Next, the two people will understand what they mean and continue to look for opportunities to resign according to the process. Every time they resign, the emperor will increase their position.

Until three requests and three resignations, Feng Guang resigned.

The cabinet resigned two ministers at once, and the first and second ministers resigned at the same time. The successor minister Zhu Yijiong had already thought about it, and all the cabinet ministries also knew it.

The new chief assistant can definitely be Zhu Chengxun, because only his qualifications and prestige can currently suppress everyone in the cabinet, while the second assistant can be tentatively named Wang Yuan.

It is also not because of ability, but because of qualifications and performance of duties. Moreover, Wang Yuan was promoted by the former chief assistant Wang Li, so there will not be too many objections to him being the second assistant.

But it still depends on the reality. If it really doesn't work, the worst case scenario is waiting for a few years to replace him. As for the seven-member cabinet changing back to a five-member cabinet, Zhu Yijiong has no plans to nominate any more people to the cabinet for the time being.

The five-member cabinet at this stage is enough, and his favorites Chen Hongmou and Liu Tongxun are still serving as chief envoys in Liaoning. Their qualifications and performance are not enough, so they have to wait and see.

Zhu Yijiong continued to review the memorials, and he flipped through the memorials and found the one submitted by the cabinet. It was specially marked in the first volume: "Turgut requested to go to Hajj and be canonized, and presented the Han seal jade seal of the Yongle period."

The cabinet's opinions can be announced by decree and canonized.

Zhu Yijiong looked at the map inside the memorial, which specifically circled the specific location of the Torgut Khanate.

When he saw that this khanate was actually in Central Asia, and was sandwiched between the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakh Khanate, Emperor Zhu immediately understood the cabinet's intention, and then Zhu approved: "Yes. Send an order to the governor of Shaanxi to send Turgut The envoys of the Khanate come to Beijing for pilgrimage."

After approving the memorial of the Turgut envoy, from the time when the decree was issued to when the envoy went to Beijing for the pilgrimage, at least it had to wait until it was close to winter.

Then the memorials were reviewed, most of which were local reporting memorials, and most of them were from state and county officials in the Jiangnan area reporting on flood relief.

It is now the flood season in the south of the Yangtze River. Although the imperial court has begun to control the river, it can only be considered a good start in the past few years. The rotten holes left by hundreds of years are not so easy to fill.

Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty established its capital in Nanjing, and the Cao Canal Road became less important. Civilian shipping companies no longer used it at all. Only the military supplies and immigrants from the North would use part of the Cao Canal Road.

And most of them are not completely covered, only part of it is taken through the Grand Canal, and then through natural inland canals to the northern provinces and counties. More shipping, including official ships and merchants from Liaodong and North Korea, have begun to try the maritime route.

The sea route is also faster and saves money. The only disadvantage is that there may be a risk of capsizing the ship in stormy weather, but this probability is actually very low. If you really encounter it, your luck can only be said to be really "good".

The memorial for local flood relief was sent to Nanjing, and it was just for reporting and asking for instructions. In fact, the local government was already doing it. If the imperial court came to issue the order, I am afraid that many people would have starved to death.

Zhu Yijiong's hand movements were very fast, and his handwriting was also very good. They were all "read", "can" and "I understand".

During this period, the Ministry of Household Affairs also submitted a memorial that Sun Jiagan, the governor of the river, asked the court for money.

Zhu Yijiong couldn't help but feel a pain in his head when he saw the other person asking for a million taels of silver for river management: "This Sun Jiagan should be diligent in asking me for money."

Having said that, we still have to give what is due, and even the cabinet's vote will be approved as soon as possible to prevent delays in river construction.

Moreover, Sun Jiagan asked for money at the right time. He always calculated the time for the court to collect tax relief money, so that he would not come to the court to ask for money when the treasury was running out of money.

It can be said that the Ministry of Household Affairs does not even have a chance to cry about poverty. It cannot be that the Ministry of Household Affairs has no money as soon as the provincial tax banks are escorted to Beijing, right?

Zhu Yijiong wrote and replied: "The Ministry of Household Affairs will allocate the funds to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as soon as possible without any mistakes."

The Ming and New Dynasties artificially diverted the Yellow River. The direction of the existing engineering river course is already different from the Yellow River hundreds of years later.

Hundreds of years later, the Yellow River suddenly changed its course from Lanyang (Lankao) County and rushed northward to Shandong and into the sea. This was mainly caused by the bursting of the Tongwaxiang embankment. The bursting of the copper tile roof is both a natural disaster and a man-made disaster.

After the Manchu Qing invaded China, they followed the policies of the previous Ming Dynasty and continued to build river embankments to protect water transportation, causing the river bed on the north bank of the Yellow River to rise continuously. By the early years of Daoguang, the height of the embankments on the back side of the Yellow River had reached three to four feet. There are so many, reaching more than five feet in some places.

Moreover, since the middle of Qianlong's reign, the finances of the Yellow River have been deteriorating. Officials at both the upper and lower levels colluded to commit fraud, and river engineering expenses were huge. Although it is difficult to see the true situation in the official reports, there is such a sigh in unofficial history: "Ouch! The country spends huge sums of money to control the river. However, at that time, the river broke out frequently, and the officials ordered the river workers to dig the breach. , in order to reimburse the ear... Nanhe spends five to six million gold per year on repairs, but less than one-tenth of it is practical, and the rest is used for officials to squander... all the blood of democracy is used to feed the arrogance and luxury of corrupt officials. If there is lewdness and tyranny, there will be peace in the world without poverty."

To put it bluntly, the Yellow River bursts every year. Sometimes it is a natural disaster, but more often it is man-made. Even if it does not burst, officials will take the initiative to open up the Yellow River and then ask the court for money to build embankments. And after getting the money, they can often use it. Not even one out of ten was involved in river engineering, and most of them were corrupted by officials.

Until the Xianfeng period, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties tried to block the Fengbeiting Sanbao three times without success. When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom came again, it was completely destroyed.

Moreover, during the blockage period, the corruption of river affairs was directly confirmed. For example, river material piles were burned artificially, rescue funds were misappropriated for other purposes, and there were even important areas on the river. The court clearly allocated three thousand taels of silver, but in the end, only less than 3,000 taels of silver were left. Twelve.

The situation faced by the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty was slightly better, but not much better. When Yongzheng of the Tatars was still there, the Tongwaxiang had already breached once. When Sun Jiagan took over, he could only build embankments first and then find ways to divert the water from other rivers. Diversion.

But no matter where the water is diverted and diverted, a section of the Cao Canal will definitely be abandoned. Not only is water transportation cut off by the Yellow River, but every time a flood occurs during the flood season, Yellow River sediment will be deposited in the Grand Canal. Over time, the Grand Canal will soon be completely scrapped.

This is the root of the problem, and it is also the reason why previous dynasties were unwilling to touch the Yellow River even if they sat back and watched the floods in the south of the Yangtze River.

If water transport is scrapped, what will Beijing do?
By the way, the Liangshan Lake in "Water Margin" is the current Anshan Lake. Because the Yellow River changed its course at the end of the Song Dynasty and diverted the Huaihe River into the sea, the water source dried up and the overall area continued to shrink.

However, with the artificial diversion of the Yellow River in the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty, the Yellow River re-entered Shandong and entered the sea. Anshan Lake will inevitably grow again until it reaches the size of Dongping Lake hundreds of years later.

Sun Jiagan asked the court for money. On the one hand, he wanted to build a dam in advance to prevent Anshan Lake from flooding again. On the other hand, he wanted to relocate the prefectures and counties along the new river channel.

Because even if the Yellow River is artificially diverted, the river course along the road will easily become a yellow flood zone.

Especially today's Dong'a County on the north bank of the Yellow River, which was originally called Tongchengyi. The real Dong'a County is on the south bank of the Yellow River. In the fifth year of Xianfeng, it was flooded and countless people died.

After reviewing continuously for half an hour, Zhu Yijiong suddenly saw a memorial from the Luzon Governor's Office. It said that a gold mine had been discovered in the mountainous area on the west side of Luzon Island. The Governor's Office did not dare to act rashly and asked the court to make a decision. .

Baguio Gold Mine Discovered!

Zhu Yijiong was quite surprised by this. He knew that there were gold mines in the Philippine Islands, but he did not know where the specific mining areas were, as well as the reserves and mineral types.

Unexpectedly, it was discovered by the Luzon Governor's Palace so quickly. And according to the preliminary exploration report in the memorial, this big gold mine is a real big gold mine. It is not only rich in reserves, but also has a mild and livable climate, which can fully satisfy the needs of immigrants. Mining for gold.

Even the discovery of gold mines relied on the guidance of local indigenous people.

The advice given by the cabinet is to explore and mine gold on a small scale first and not to exploit it on a large scale. After two years, the population here will increase, and the imperial court will issue gold coins, and then we will see if we can expand the gold mining output.

Zhu Yijiong thought for a moment and wrote down the instructions: "I order the Ministry of Industry to immediately select officials and craftsmen to go to the Luzon gold mine for on-site inspection."

Asking the Ministry of Industry to select craftsmen to explore for gold mines was naturally not because Emperor Zhu was jealous of the money, but because he intended to use this gold mine to further build public opinion for Luzon immigrants.

At this stage, foreign colonization has already reached a period of bottleneck and saturation. After all, there are still not many people who are willing to make a living overseas.

Even so far, the land successfully reclaimed by the Luzon Governor's Palace only occupies a circle along the coast of Luzon. The mountains and forests in the central and northern parts have not yet been able to be digested, and only a few trading stations have been established.

Therefore, we must find other ways to further stimulate the excess population in the country, especially in Fujian and Guangdong, to migrate overseas.

What could be more attractive to coastal immigrants than a large, natural and livable gold mine? In fact, we are learning from the history of the Lanfang Republic in Borneo.

The Lanfang Kingdom in history was originally discovered because of the large gold mine in Borneo, which then caused competition among various countries. And this attracted a large number of Han immigrants from China, who moved overseas to seek gold, and then settled in Borneo.

Even if the gold mines gradually dried up later, the momentum of immigration had already begun, but it continued for many years until the Lanfang Republic, the first overseas Chinese country, was established.

Of course, Zhu Yijiong did not completely take into account the concerns of the cabinet. He directly called the cabinet ministers to discuss the matter.

Regarding the emperor's will, the cabinet ministers were quite helpless.

Zhu Chengxun said: "There are gold mines in Luzon, so gold should naturally be mined. But now the court will issue silver coins along the coast and collect them against coastal silver. If the Luzon gold mine is opened now, it will cause a disaster for gold and silver along the coast and further affect the situation." Prices fluctuate along the coast.”

Zhu Yijiong said: "I know about this. The gold mine will only be surveyed by the Ministry of Industry first. There is no need to worry about when it will be mined. Moreover, gold mining is not important right now. What is really important is that the people must know that there is gold in Luzon. "

After saying this, the cabinet ministers instantly understood that the emperor wanted to build momentum for overseas colonization!
In this case, it is not impossible. As long as overseas gold is not mined in large quantities at one time, even small-scale mining can slow down the inflow of overseas gold.

"I understand."

Zhu Chengxun responded on behalf of the cabinet.

Zhu Yijiong nodded: "Don't take this matter too seriously. I will order the Propaganda Department to try their best to cooperate with the cabinet. Moreover, even if the gold mine is not in a hurry to be mined for the time being, the cabinet and the Ministry of Personnel should quickly select and send Luzon mine supervisory officials there. The Luzon Mine Supervisor is under the direct control of the Luzon Governor. Every year, the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate sends an inspection censor across the sea to inspect the Luzon Mine Supervisor."

"According to the order."

The cabinet ministers responded with their hands in arms.

The specific details are definitely more than that. The cabinet has to go back and discuss it carefully, check for any gaps, and draft a flawless charter.

"Your Majesty, speaking of the Luzon gold mine, there is one more thing." Zhu Chengxun said: "This morning the Taiwan Prefecture submitted a memorial. The Spanish Governor of Cebu requested the establishment of a supply port in Ryukyu County."

Zhu Yijiong was a little confused: "The Spaniards in Cebu want to set up a supply port in Ryukyu, why don't they discuss it with the Governor of Luzon and convey it to them?"

Just talking about the prefect of Taiwan obviously bypassed the governor of Luzon, and the governor of Luzon did not make a report.

But as soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Yijiong realized that the Spaniards were going to set up a supply port in Ryukyu, and the Luzon Governor's Mansion must be worried. If the Spaniards all went to Ryukyu to engage in sea trade from now on, Minbu Port would definitely be greatly affected.
Zhu Yijiong thought for a while and said: "Since the Spanish want to set up a supply port in Ryukyu, this is not a big deal, so they approved their request."

By setting up a supply port in Ryukyu, it is naturally impossible to really collapse Luzon, because once the trading port becomes Ryukyu. Not only would Luzon be affected, but the port of Cebu in Spain would also be directly scrapped.

The Spanish merchants and colonial officials on Cebu Island were the least likely to agree, so the Ryukyu supply port could only be a supply port.

Of course, there will definitely still be some trading goods.

It was nothing more than smuggling, and the Spanish colonial officials were doing their job well. They continued to expand the amount of smuggling through supply.

Zhu Yijiong agreed to the Spanish stationing in Ryukyu and opening a supply (smuggling) port, which also further deepened the relationship with the Spanish.

If a war breaks out between the two countries in the future due to national interests, countless Spanish businessmen will definitely defect, and even colonial officials may defect and then spread the word.

For these Spaniards, any national interests are nothing. How can they be worth the gold and silver in their pockets?

(End of this chapter)